Elaine Hatfield is Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and past-president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex. In 2012, she received the William James award for a Lifetime of Scientific Achievement from the Association for Psychological Science. In recent years, she has received Distinguished Scientist Awards from the University of Hawaii, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (SSSS), the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, the International Academy for Intercultural Research, and the Alfred Kinsey Award from the Western Region of SSSS. She also recently received the Methodological Innovator Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.


Richard L. Rapson is a Professor of History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; he has also taught at Amherst College and Stanford University. He has written more than a dozen books, most of which focus on the psychological side of American life, past and present. His most recent books are Amazed by Life: Confessions of a Non-religious Believer (2004) and Magical Thinking and the Decline of America (2007).

Jeanette Purvis is an adjunct lecturer in Social Psychology currently working in the private sector. Her research focuses on the intersection of modern romantic relationships and new technologies. She also works in the community as a social worker for the homeless and is a former Chandler Fellow in Public Policy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"Elaine Hatfield and Richard Rapson have produced another tour de force on love. Hatfeld, together with Ellen Berscheid, essentially invented the field of the psychology of love. Now, years later, she, Rapson, and Purvis have reinvented the field for contemporary times. This is a book that anyone interested in love-which means, essentially, everyone-will want to read!" -- Robert J. Sternberg, Professor of Human Development, Cornell University