Study: Being in Love Makes You a Slacker

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You know that honeymoon phase when you’re in a new relationship and all you can think about is your new person and how much fun you’re having and how hard you’re falling and how warm and fuzzy and ooey-gooey life is at that very moment?

Yeah, that’s messing you up.

A new study published in the journal of Motivation and Emotion by researcher Henk van Steenbergen and some colleagues from Leiden University and the University of Maryland declares that when you’re in that stage, you seriously are less productive. Well, he says that “high levels of passionate love of individuals in the early stage of a romantic relationship are associated with reduced cognitive control,” but obviously, what that basically means is that when you’re daydreaming all googly-eyed about your new love, you’re not really doing much else at a fully functioning, praise-worthy level.

“But I’m engaged!” you say? “Why are you telling me this?” Well, because the early stage of a new relationship is not the only time referred to as ‘the honeymoon phase.’ After all, it’s called that because it very much reflects the actual honeymoon phase, which is the one you’re about to enter into: You’re about to become a newlywed.

So look alive when you return to real life after your wedding. Now that this data is out, people’ll be on to you.

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