menu Home chevron_right
SCIENCE

How Much Money is LOVE Worth?

Vsauce | August 25, 2025



SOURCES:

music: http://soundcloud.com/jakechudnow

Triangular theory of love: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangular_theory_of_love

Measuring passionate love paper: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~elaineh/71.pdf

Limerence (great article if you want to nerd-out about love): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerence

Easy to print PLS: http://www.elainehatfield.com/Passionate%20Love%20Scale.pdf

Value of first hearing “I love you” from someone: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/19/victoria-coren-brainjuicer-lottery-study

Value of being married: http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/10/magazine/magbr_valentines_loveandmoney_0502/

GDP vs. Other Stuff: http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/04/25/the-economics-of-happiness-part-6-delving-into-subjective-well-being/

Love vs. GDP: http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/02/14/the-macroeconomics-of-love-a-valentines-day-analysis/

Hedonic Treadmill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill

Another great article on the Hedonic Treadmill: http://money.howstuffworks.com/gross-national-happiness2.htm

$$$ vs. happiness: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5174

Marriage and life expectancy: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1351287/Marriage-key-better-life-Study-finds-tying-knot-means-improved-health-longer-life-expectancy.html?ITO=1490

GDP and life expectancy: http://tinyurl.com/79sksjh

Vasopressin / Oxytocin LA Times article: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/08/health/la-he-love8-2010feb08

BONUSES:

article about scientifically finding the happiest man in America: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/weekinreview/06happy.html?_r=2

Gallup / Healthways well-being index: http://www.well-beingindex.com/

Value of a human: http://www.humanforsale.com/

Our fb: http://www.Facebook.com/VsauceGaming

Our twitter: @tweetsauce

Tagged as .

Written by Vsauce

Comments

This post currently has 46 comments.

  5. @real_dave1

    August 25, 2025 at 8:40 pm

    To actually answer the question:

    “Love” is a feeling regulated by dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. Most emotions, in a vacuum with no prolonging stimulation, last about 90 seconds.

    Now, taking the market prices of each chemical and the average amount produced over that 90 seconds:

    Love costs about 84¢.

  17. @horypjoter4410

    August 25, 2025 at 8:40 pm

    thank you michael. i know its been 13 years since uve uploaded that video but ive been struggling a lot recently because of some things that had happened and i dont really have anyone to talk to, but after that video ive realised that i were addicted to the person that hurt me and the best solution to that is just to find comfort in someone elses eyes or presence. its hard to find immediate help.

  27. @essiegamepoint8770

    August 25, 2025 at 8:40 pm

    My hypothesis for whats gonna be in this video was that he was going to measure the amount of different atoms love needs (for the hormones) and that he then is gonna look at how much that would cost to make. I was wrong

  31. @crispyfriedtoes

    August 25, 2025 at 8:40 pm

    Bit offtopic but she is so out of my league. I've been called pretty but i'm a 1/10 next to her. I like her so much; her bangs, her style, the way she talks, etc. I'm just too shy to talk to her properly. I only have one class period with her. It's already super obvious I like her. I don't want to push her away with my attempts at getting close with her, but I really do want to get to know her. I just don't know how.

  46. @imrannooraddin1876

    August 25, 2025 at 8:40 pm

    weird this is 11 years ago. maybe someone sees this in another 11 years and thinks about me and how young i was at the time of writing. maybe ive married my current gf and maybe ive broken up and maybe ive died. im 27 now, so do the math future people 🙂 lets see who i become

Comments are closed.

Related
How Additive Synthesis Works
Benn Jordan | April 18, 2026
Related
The Most Insane Megaproject You Never Heard About
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell | April 18, 2026
Related
All The Ghosts You Will Be
Vsauce | April 17, 2026

This area can contain widgets, menus, shortcodes and custom content. You can manage it from the Customizer, in the Second layer section.

 

 

 

Go to album
  • play_circle_filled

    92.9 : The Torch

  • play_circle_filled

    AGGRO
    'Til Deaf Do Us Part...

  • play_circle_filled

    SLACK!
    The Music That Made Gen-X

  • play_circle_filled

    KUDZU
    The Northwoods' Alt-Country & Americana

  • play_circle_filled

    BOOZHOO
    Indigenous Radio

  • play_circle_filled

    THE FLOW
    The Northwoods' Hip Hop and R&B

play_arrow skip_previous skip_next volume_down
playlist_play