In this volume, noted scholars Elaine Hatfield and Richard Rapson focus on the cross-cultural research concerning the passionate beginnings of relationships: how people meet, fall in love, make love, and fall out of love, usually only to risk it all over again. Through in-depth analysis and astute assessment, they compare the way cultures try to set rules for these incendiary matters. Two main questions addressed are: 'What seems to be biological and universal?' and 'What seems to be socially constructed and transient?' Taking a historical perspective, the authors ask where different societies, and the world itself, are headed?

What's Next in Love and Sex is a comprehensive examination of contemporary academic findings relating to all matters of the mind, body, and heart. Inspired by questions asked by students, the book covers cutting-edge topics so new that they are rarely addressed in current sexuality texts, providing insight into modern trends such as hookup culture, virtual pornography, robots, apps, and online dating as they evolve in this day and age. Written by one of the pioneers of love and sex research, Elaine Hatfield, along with historian Richard Rapson and social psychologist Jeannette Purvis, this book uses contemporary scientific findings to provide an updated and relevant explanation for why we do the things we do when we're in love, searching for love, making love, or trying to keep a faltering relationship together. Combining rigorous scholarship with an accessible and entertaining style, no other book will give college students and academics alike such a developed understanding of contemporary love and sex.