London - Forget love at first sight. All you old romantics probably fell for your other half with the help of hindsight, according to scientists.
They say our memory constantly rewrites our past, updating it with the wisdom of new experiences.
It means we can’t rely on our recollections – and love at first sight may be a figment of the imagination.
Dr Donna Jo Bridge, of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, came to the conclusion after carrying out memory tests.
She said: “When you think back to when you met your partner, you may recall this feeling of love and euphoria. But you may be projecting your current feelings back to the original encounter with this person.”
Dr Bridge asked a group of men and women to memorise an object’s location on a computer screen and place it back in the right position. She found that even when participants were prompted with the right answer after they got it wrong, they still thought they had remembered correctly – much like the way we could convince ourselves we fell in love at first sight.
Dr Joel Voss, the study’s senior author, said: “Memory is designed to help us make good decisions in the moment and, therefore, it has to stay up-to-date.”
In other words, even though it might not have happened, remembering a “love at first sight” moment is the brain’s way of helping to make a relationship even stronger. - Daily Mail