RelationshipsDimensionTypes of Love Test — Sternberg's Triangular Theory

Passion

This dimension runs from “Cool, unhurried” to “Drawn to them”.

Level by level

What each level of Passion means

Strong

A high score means the pull is live: you notice them physically in a way you do not notice other people, thoughts of them arrive unbidden, and there is a charge in the hour before you meet. Passion is the fastest-moving of the three components — it answers to novelty, uncertainty and time apart, which is exactly why it is easy to read as proof of depth when it is proof of intensity. Its honest limit lies elsewhere: it says nothing about whether you are known, or whether either of you intends to stay. The other two scales measure that.

Moderate

A middle score is what most established bonds look like once the first year is behind them. The pull is there and it has stopped being constant: it rises around absence, novelty and the good stretches, and recedes when the week is ordinary. This is the reading most often mistaken for decline. At this level passion tracks conditions rather than feelings — sleep, strain, distance, how much of your time together is logistics — and it comes back on those same conditions. That is a different situation from a scale that has gone silent altogether.

Faint

A low score means the physical, preoccupying side of this bond is quiet right now. For a deep friendship or a family tie that is the ordinary reading, with nothing missing at all; for a romantic bond in a flat stretch or a long strain, it is ordinary too. This is the most changeable of the three scales, so a low score describes a period rather than passing a verdict on the relationship. What matters more is what the other two components read: while this scale is down, intimacy and commitment are what carry the bond.

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