How Deep Is Your Love?

By Tara Parker-Pope
For most couples, passion and romance eventually fade over time, and a more calm, contented love takes over as the years go by.

Is your relationship still filled with sparks? (Lauren Fleischman for The New York Times)

But for long-together couples who fear boredom has set in, brain and behavior researchers have come up with a simple prescription for reigniting the fires of romantic love. To learn more, click here to read my Well column about reinventing date night in today's Science Times.

And then take the following quiz to find out how you score on the passion meter. This passionate love scale was developed by Elaine Hatfield, psychology professor at the University of Hawaii, and Susan Sprecher, psychology and sociology professor at Illinois State University. It was designed to assess the cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects of passionate love and has been widely used by relationship researchers for the past two decades.

Dr. Hatfield notes that the scale is useful for researchers, but that couples should only take the test for fun and not make major decisions based on how they score on the 15-item scale. “Love and life are very complex, and a person's emotions are always nuanced,” she said.

Answer the following questions to test your level of passionate love. Think of the person you love most passionately now, and respond by circling the appropriate response. Answers range from (1) not at all true to (9) definitely true. Then, add up your scores and check the scale below to see how hot your love fires burn.