What Gottman’s Research Reveals About the Stages of Love

When people talk about “chemistry” or “the spark,” they’re often describing dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to pleasure, reward, motivation, and anticipation. In romantic relationships, dopamine surges during early attraction, creating excitement, focus, and emotional intensity. But while dopamine plays a powerful role in bringing two people together, it is not what sustains long-term love.

In Gottman’s framework, lasting love tends to unfold in three broad phases: an initial limerence phase driven by intense chemistry, a trust phase in which partners learn whether they can rely on each other, and a commitment phase in which they actively choose the relationship over time.

According to Dr. John Gottman’s decades of research with couples in the Love Lab, successful relationships are built on emotional attunement, trust, and friendship—not just neurochemical highs (The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work). 

What Is Dopamine and Why Does It Matter in Relationships?

Dopamine is often described as one of the brain’s “reward chemicals.” It becomes active when we experience something pleasurable or anticipate something rewarding.

In relationships, dopamine fuels infatuation, increases energy and focus on a partner, heightens desire and excitement, and reinforces bonding through positive experiences 

Early in dating, dopamine can make ordinary interactions feel extraordinary. A text message triggers anticipation. A glance feels charged. The brain quickly associates this person with potential reward, which helps explain why it is so hard to stop thinking about them. 

Dopamine is also sensitive to novelty and unpredictability. As a relationship becomes more predictable, those sharp dopamine spikes naturally decrease . Studies of long-term couples suggest this is a normal adaptation, not a sign that love is gone.

Dopamine, Attraction, and the “Spark” of Early Love

Gottman describes the first phase of love as a limerence phase (Phase 1 in “The 3 Phases of Love”). It corresponds to what most people think of as the honeymoon period: dopamine‑driven attraction, strong longing, and a narrowed focus on the other person. Brain imaging shows strong activation in reward regions when people in early romantic love see images of their partner.

From a Gottman perspective, limerence looks like positive sentiment override—the phase in which partners interpret each other generously. Minor irritations are minimized, and people assume good intent. Dopamine in relationships helps create this glow, but in Gottman’s model it is only the first phase of love.

What matters for the future of the relationship is what happens as couples move out of limerence into the second phase: building trust. If you are in this high‑dopamine stage and want to look beyond chemistry, Gottman’s “How to Plan a Successful Relationship” offers concrete questions about values, conflict, and life dreams: 

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When Dopamine Fades: Why Conflict and Disconnection Increase

When dopamine levels stabilize, many couples notice less automatic excitement, more irritation, and a decline in sexual novelty. This is often the point when conflict surfaces more regularly.

This is also where Gottman’s second phase—trust—either solidifies or erodes (Phase 2 in “The 3 Phases of Love”). In this view, trust is built through repeated experiences of “you are there for me” during stress, disappointment, and everyday needs.

Across thousands of couples, Gottman has identified four interaction patterns—criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling—as strong predictors of relationship breakdown, known as the Four Horsemen.

These patterns are more likely to appear when couples have leaned on dopamine‑driven excitement but lack conflict‑management skills. Each episode of harsh criticism or emotional withdrawal sends the message “I am not safe with you,” and slowly undermines the trust phase.

Without deliberate effort, partners begin “turning away” from emotional bids instead of turning toward them—a core Gottman concept. At this point, the issue is not that dopamine has disappeared, but that a long-term love relationship requires emotional attunement, trust‑building behavior, conflict‑resolution skills, and shared meaning. Dopamine may start the relationship. Skills and daily practice of small “things” sustain it. (For practical strategies grounded in Gottman’s research, see “Conflict Resolution in Relationships”).