Saida Heshmati, assistant professor of psychology in the division of behavioral and organizational sciences at Claremont Graduate University, recently secured a near $1.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation for a five-year project to conduct a cross-cultural study on love across six nations.

The project, “Embracing Love Across Cultures: Decoding Cultural Beliefs on Love and Their Impact on Wellbeing” is led by Heshmati and Zita Oravecz, an associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State. It aims to build on previous research on how Americans view romantic and non-romantic love.

The project will “employ a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach, integrating comprehensive qualitative research methodologies with advanced quantitative analytical tools embedded in the Cultural Consensus Theory,” read the project description at templeton.org. “Findings will lead to interdisciplinary collaborative initiatives, a series of scientific papers, conference presentations and an interactive online platform with a database sharing diverse cultural love insights. Ultimately, our research seeks to guide the understanding of love in a more inclusive manner, considering a wide array of cultural, societal, and relational contexts.”