--- title: Eye Movement Could Be the Difference Between Lust and Love, Study Says description: Research could bring an end to the question, "But where is this really going?" canonical: https://time.com/3005675/love-lust-eyes-study/ author: Joan E. Greve article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-18T19:12:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:41.124Z og:title: Eye Movement Could Be the Difference Between Lust and Love, Study Says og:description: Research could bring an end to the question, "But where is this really going?" og:url: https://time.com/3005675/love-lust-eyes-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05b0650fc1a7ff0c/69869c53cd804d6ab1ccbff8/couple-dating-relationship-eyes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5122 og:image:height: 2881 og:image:alt: Smiling Couple Dating og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eye Movement Could Be the Difference Between Lust and Love, Study Says twitter:description: Research could bring an end to the question, "But where is this really going?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05b0650fc1a7ff0c/69869c53cd804d6ab1ccbff8/couple-dating-relationship-eyes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Is That a Look of Love, or Lust? 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Joan E. Greve](https://time.com/author/joan-greve/) ## Joan E. Greve Jul 18, 2014 7:12 PM UTC  A close-up of a smiling couple is shown. A close-up of a smiling couple is shown. Sam Edwards—OJO Images RF/Getty Images by [Joan E. Greve](https://time.com/author/joan-greve/) ## Joan E. Greve Jul 18, 2014 7:12 PM UTC Scientists may have found a way to answer a question so many people have when they’re dating: “Where is this going?” All you have to do, according to researchers at the University of Chicago, is watch a potential partner’s eyes. A new [study](http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2014/07/17/eye-movements-reveal-difference-between-love-and-lust) found that eye movements could reveal whether a person was in lust or in love. Their results, collected from male and female students at the University of Geneva, showed that participants fixated more on the face when they perceived an image to evoke romantic love but that their gaze shifted to the rest of the body when an image seemed indicative of sexual desire. “Although little is currently known about the science of love at first sight or how people fall in love, these patterns of response provide the first clues regarding how automatic attentional processes, such as eye gaze, may differentiate feelings of love from feelings of desire toward strangers,” said the study’s lead author Stephanie Cacioppo. Cacioppo is becoming somewhat of an expert on the biology of love. Earlier this year, she conducted [research](http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2014/07/17/eye-movements-reveal-difference-between-love-and-lust) finding that feelings of love and desires for sex were located in different parts of the brain. “This distinction has been interpreted to mean that desire is a relatively concrete representation of sensory experiences, while love is a more abstract representation of those experiences,” she said in February. Cacioppo is joined in her findings by her real-life partner in love, her husband and University of Chicago researcher John Cacioppo. “By identifying eye patterns that are specific to love-related stimuli, the study may contribute to the development of a biomarker that differentiates feelings of romantic love versus sexual desire,” he said. “An eye-tracking paradigm may eventually offer a new avenue of diagnosis in clinicians’ daily practice or for routine clinical exams in psychiatry and/or couple therapy.” We see an eye-tracking app in the making. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3005675/love-lust-eyes-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3005675/love-lust-eyes-study/"},"headline":"Is That a Look of Love, or Lust? 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