Love styles: a cross-cultural study of British, Indian, and Portuguese college students

Abstract

This study was undertaken to examine young women's and men's styles of love in three cultures: England, India, and Portugal. 562 students completed the Love Attitudes Scale (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986), as measures of Lee's love styles. Cultural background and gender were investigated as correlates of love styles among British, Indian, and Portuguese university students. Men viewed love as more permissive, more friendship oriented, more pragmatic, more agapic, but less manic than did women. Culture differences or Gender x Culture interactions were also found. We discuss the importance of studying love with data collected from more than one culture.