Determining the legitimacy of love at first sight

You’ve heard it before — it was love at first sight.

It’s been a debate for years if love at first sight is the real deal. But is it really possible to fall in love with someone the minute you meet them?

According to Helen Fisher, PhD, research professor at Rutgers University, it usually takes people the first three minutes of talking to someone to decide whether that person is a suitable match. It also takes less than one second to decide if someone is physically attractive or not.

Mount Pleasant college students offered their insight on which side they fall on in terms of love at first sight. Mid-Michigan Community College student Kylah Barber said she is a believer.

“I feel that love at first sight is possible with anyone, especially younger children and older adults,” Barber said. “To me love is a feeling and when you  first lay your eyes on someone you can get a certain vibe or your intuition may cause feelings to derive.”

Barber hasn’t experienced love at first sight personally, but said she still believes it can happen. She said a person can have a strong feeling toward another person and that they were put on this Earth specifically for him or her.

Central Michigan junior Hazel Pacion said she does not believe in love at first sight because she thinks it is a myth people use to justify a crush.

“I’ve gone through the whole ‘tell everyone I love a guy because I had a huge crush on him the second I met him,'” she said. “But it doesn’t mean I loved him the second I saw him.”

Pacion said when it comes to love there is a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone.

“It’s fun to have guy friends to hang out with and be able to call your best friends,” she said. “But it’s a different feeling when you have a guy in your life that makes a bigger effort to make you a part of his life.”

Pacion said her high school self would have said yes to believing in love at first sight but has since changed her mind due to past relationships.

“As we get older and go through more experiences, we learn the realities of relationships,” she said. “We date people to find what we like and what we don’t.”

Freshman Adam Abraham said he believes in first sight because of the physical attraction to someone upon meeting them.

“I believe once you see a person smile or that twinkle in their eye you can be hooked on them from that second,” he said.

While physical attractiveness can spark a love at first sight, feeling it takes more than that alone to make a love connection last.

“You have to enjoy talking to that person,” Abraham said. “You have to enjoy spending time with them.”

Regardless of the rate at which feelings and love develop, what is most important is knowing the ways to maintain that love and enabling it grow for time to come.