Measuring love around the world: A cross-cultural reliability generalization.

Feybesse, C., Forthmann, B., Neto, F., Holling, H., & Hatfield, E.

Research article (journal) | Peer reviewed

Abstract

We collected international studies that have used the Passionate Love Scale, the Love Attitudes Scale and the Triangular Love Scale in order to check the stability of reliability estimates of these measures across different cultures until mid-2017. We used cultural dimensions to verify if the different love components of these scales could have some cultural effects on their reliabilities. We were able to gather 79 studies from 33 countries representing 32,867 participants. We used a variance stabilizing transformation to compare Cronbach’s alphas estimations, bivariate correlation analysis for confounding and moderator analysis to check for the reliability across demographic information and various test-characteristics. The results indicated that the love dimensions tended to be reliable across studies and countries and were relatively free of cultural influences. Participants across the world tended to evaluate their romantic feelings with similar consistency and these measures should be reliable worldwide.

Details about the publication

JournalSexuality & Culture
Volume29
Page range561-588
StatusPublished
Release year2025
DOI10.1007/s12119-024-10287-z
Link to the full texthttps://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10287-z
KeywordsRomantic love; Love attitudes; Love scales; Reliability generalization; Culture

Authors from the University of Münster

Forthmann, Boris
Professorship for statistics and research methods in psychology