Break Up, Then Move On: Humans Are Hardwired To Do This, Study Shows

Love is a beautiful thing, but it can also be nasty when it comes to a bad break up.

New findings published in the Review of General Psychology show that humans are pretty much hardwired to move straight on out after a breakup when they've fallen out of love.

Researchers at Saint Louis University thoroughly analyzed this process, working with colleagues to analyze the specifics of falling out of love and moving on to a new relationship. The team also identified the different evolutionary reasons as to why people break up.

Findings revealed that men are more naturally likely to leave a partner if they'vve discovered that she has been unfaithful with another. It has to do with their brains and children belonging to someone else.

Yet it's not quite so simple with women, as they do not need sex as a reason to break up with a partner. More emotions are involved in this equation and emotional cheating is a big factor.

"Men are particularly sensitive to sexual infidelity between their partner and someone else," Brian Boutwell, Ph.D., associate professor of criminology and criminal justice and associate professor of epidemiology of the university said in a news release. "That's not to say women don't get jealous, they certainly do, but it's especially acute for men regarding sexual infidelity."

However, we have to remember that not every relationship or person is the same. Some will require more time following a breakup or put up with more based on both environmental and genetic factors.

"Our review of the literature suggests we have a mechanism in our brains designed by natural selection to pull us through a very tumultuous time in our lives," Boutwell added. "It suggests people will recover; the pain will go away with time. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel."

"If we better understand mate ejection, it may offer direct and actionable insight into ways in which couples can save a relationship that might otherwise come to stultifying and abrupt halt," he concluded. 

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