What's Love Got To Do With It?: Rethinking Common Sense Assumptions

Abstract

One of the most basic tasks in introductory social science classes is to get students to reexamine their common sense assumptions concerning human behavior. This article introduces a shared assignment developed for a learning community that paired an introductory sociology and psychology class. The assignment challenges students to rethink the widespread belief that romantic love is a natural, normal, and inevitable part of the human condition and then encourages them to begin to use the principles of empirical research to examine the phenomena of romantic love.

Keywords:

• social science
• love
• assumptions