Intimacy
Feeling close and understoodIntimacy is emotional closeness, trust, and connection. It includes feeling safe enough to share your thoughts and be yourself with your partner.
Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love Test - What Are the Characteristics of Your Love?
Do you know what type of love you have? Psychologist Sternberg's "Triangular Theory of Love" evaluates love based on three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. This theory classifies love into eight different types. What is your love type?
What is the Triangular Theory of Love?
Psychologist Robert Sternberg proposed the Triangular Theory of Love in 1986. It describes love through three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Feeling close, feeling attracted, and choosing to stay together can combine in different ways.
IntimacyPassionCommitment
These components describe different aspects of love. Placing them at the corners of a triangle helps show how they relate to one another.
The three components of love
Passion
Attraction and excitementPassion includes romantic excitement, the desire to be together, and physical attraction. It is a different aspect of love from emotional closeness.
Commitment
Choosing to maintain the relationshipCommitment includes deciding that you love someone and choosing to sustain that love over time. It means more than a sense of obligation.
Eight combinations of love
The theory describes eight forms of love through different combinations of the three components. Colored corners and labels on each card identify the components that characterize that form.
Non-love
All three components are weak
All three components are weak. An acquaintance without a close emotional bond is one example.
Liking
Intimacy
Intimacy is central. Emotional connection and friendship matter more than passion or a long-term commitment.
Empty Love
Commitment
Commitment is central, while emotional closeness and passion are weak. The intention to maintain the relationship remains.
Infatuated Love
Passion
Passion is central. Strong attraction may be present before deep understanding or a long-term commitment develops.
Romantic Love
IntimacyPassion
Intimacy and passion combine. There is emotional closeness and attraction, while long-term commitment is not yet central.
Companionate Love
IntimacyCommitment
Intimacy and commitment combine. Trust and the intention to stay together are more central than passion.
Fatuous Love
PassionCommitment
Passion and commitment combine, while intimacy is weak. Attraction and a decision to stay together can develop before a deep understanding of each other.
Consummate Love
IntimacyPassionCommitment
All three components combine: emotional closeness, attraction, and the intention to maintain the relationship.
What this test reveals
Answer 40 questions about your relationship with your partner to explore the love type reflected in your current answers, along with a score for each component.
Your type among eight forms of love
Read about its characteristics and advice for reflecting on your relationship.
Intimacy, passion, and commitment scores
See the balance between the three components and explanations related to each score.
Love can change over time
The eight types are not fixed personalities or a ranking of relationships. Your feelings early in a relationship may differ from those after years together. Even the label “Consummate Love” does not guarantee lasting stability.
Use your result as a prompt for reflection based on your own answers. It cannot establish your partner’s feelings or predict your future together. Research on the original theory does not establish the accuracy of this particular 40-question test.
References
- A triangular theory of love
Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Psychological Review, 93(2), 119–135.
- Triangular Theory of Love
Robert J. Sternberg
Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love Test
What Are the Characteristics of Your Love?
Take the TestWhat Are the Characteristics of Your Love?
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