Love in cross-cultural perspective: Mozambique-France comparison

Germano Vera Cruz (1, 2)

1 CLLE - Cognition, langues, langage, ergonomie
2 UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès

The study aimed to characterise the conceptualisation of love in Mozambique (a collectivist society) and France (an individualistic society) on three attributes: passion, intimacy, and commitment. The study sample comprised 310 Mozambican adults (females = 57%; age range = 18-64) and 220 French adults (females = 54%; age range = 18-64). They completed 27 information scenarios on passion, intimacy, and commitment. The data were analysed utilising mixed-method estimation of the variance accounted for by the three components of love. Results indicated that for the Mozambican participants passion was the most important factor (46%) in love expression, followed by commitment (37%), and intimacy (17%). For the French participants, passion was the most important factor (50%), followed by intimacy (28%), and commitment (22%). Across countries, the weight given to passion was reported to decline over age while the weight assigned to commitment was reported to increase with age .

Mots clés: conceptualisation of love; cultural differences; Mozambique; France; conceptualization of love

Domaines: Psychologie

Germano Vera Cruz. Love in cross-cultural perspective: Mozambique-France comparison. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 2017, 27 (4), pp.334 - 337. ⟨10.1080/14330237.2017.1347754⟩. ⟨hal-03221624⟩