The Season of love is finally here, Couples will be planning over the top dinners of Extravagant date locations to spend time with their loved ones. Recent research conducted in Baylor University states that Couples who play board games or take painting classes together produce more oxytocin or ‘love hormone’ which is associated with bonding and family cohesiveness.
A study published in The Journal of Marriage and Family states that men wielding paintbrushes released twice as much or more oxytocin as the level of women painters and couples playing games would interact more because they were communicating about the games and strategies, or because they were competing, and with more interaction, they would release more oxytocin.
The Biggest finding for the researchers was that couples tend to release more oxytocin when they were involved in painting classes, men involved in the art class released 2 to 2.5 times more oxytocin. This suggests that some types of activities may be more beneficial to males than females, and vice versa. For the study, researchers at Baylor University recruited 20 couples ranging in age from 25 to 40.
Couples were randomly assigned to participate in one of two couple dates — game night or couple art class — for one hour. The other group participated in painting classes for couples at a community art studio. To measure participants’ oxytocin levels, researchers took urine samples before and after the activities. They also administered a six-item survey about the couple’s familiarity with the activities and about their communication, touch and eye contact with their partners during the sessions, which lasted for about an hour.
