Although Sir John Templeton advocated for unlimited love “for every person,” the science of love — defined here as high-quality connection — has been largely limited to close relationships. In an increasingly isolated and polarized world, this research project puts forth the idea that cultivating high-quality connections with strangers may yield unique benefits conducive to communal and societal flourishing — benefits that cannot be derived from close relationships. 

Directed by Taylor West at UNC’s Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab, and co-directed by Gillian Sandstrom at the University of Sussex, the project aims to expand scientific understanding of love by defining and uncovering distinct benefits of high-quality connection with strangers. The team hypothesizes that such interactions, cumulatively, over time, build positive beliefs and behaviors that stand to serve the common good. 

First, in a tightly controlled laboratory-based study, the team will test whether interacting with a stranger versus a close other uniquely builds virtuous beliefs and behaviors that benefit the collective.

Next, in a longitudinal, double-blind, randomized controlled trial they will test the effectiveness of a novel digital wellness intervention to strengthen these same virtuous beliefs and behaviors by promoting positivity resonance — a momentary experience characterized by three features: shared positive affect, mutual care and concern, and behavioral and biological synchrony (Fredrickson, 2013, 2016). The intervention will be deployed in the form of a scavenger hunt app that’s known to increase community engagement to test the cumulative effects of high-quality connections with strangers (i.e., those marked by positivity resonance).