Helen Fisher

From my studies of genetics and neuroscience I have come to believe that people fall into four broad personality types - each influenced by a different brain chemical: I call them the Explorer, Builder, Director, and Negotiator.

As women in industrial societies join the paid workforce, they gain the economic means to depart unhappy marriages more easily.

A woman of 40 or 50 or 60 can take estrogen replacements, get facelifts, spend her money in bars.

Barriers tend to intensify romance. It's called the 'Romeo and Juliet effect.' I call it 'frustration attraction.'

Of all the foods we share, there is nothing more primordial than meat. It's no surprise that meat-eaters still want a partner who will give, receive and share this primordial symbol of a budding partnership.

Office romances are few, short, and not usually destructive.

Blushing is thought to be linked to increased levels of norepinephrine in the brain, which may be associated with romantic feelings. It signals that we are interested and excited, which is attractive to men.

We're not very dangerous animals; we don't have a horn like a rhino or quills like a porcupine.

For men, being too put-together implies femininity.

I was married and divorced at 23.

You size up someone physically in less than one second - too tall, too short, too fat, too thin, too old, too young, too stuffy, too scruffy.

Touch is the mother of the senses. Not only are women more sensitive when they touch, but they're also more sensitive to being touched.