Part 2: The Effects of Love
The Technology of Love, Part 2; The Effects of Love---How Love Shapes Life, Relationships, and Systems
by Elaine McLellan
Love is not a mystery—it’s a force. And like any real force, it has effects. These effects are visible, measurable, and consistent across human experience. In The Technology of Love, we explore love not as an abstract feeling, but as a dynamic, functioning system. In this post, we begin unpacking that system by identifying ten core effects that love produces in people, relationships, and even the world around us.
1. Love is Discernible
Whether child or adult, human or animal, beings can sense love’s presence. It’s not always easy to describe, but it is felt. Through our sensory and cognitive systems, we recognize love when it’s real—often instantly. That means love is not a vague feeling; it’s a detectable experience.
2. Love is Transactive
Love operates like an energy exchange. There is always a giving side and a receiving side, and these balance each other. Like all energy equations, love requires input and output. It’s not static; it moves.
3. Love is Transgenerative
When love is expressed, it creates a kind of emotional feedback loop. Both the giver and receiver of love experience a sense of being pleased. This regenerative loop feeds itself, producing more love—and more willingness to love.
4. Love is Transpondive
Love creates echoes. A loved child will often love in return—not only the parent but others and even the world. The same is true for adults. Love received tends to radiate outward, sometimes toward people, sometimes toward animals, or even inanimate things. This effect explains why a room, a home, or a garden can seem “filled with love.”
5. Love is Cohesion Bonding
Borrowing a term from physics, love produces “cohesion”—a bond that holds people or things together. It creates invisible threads that maintain proximity, connection, and loyalty. These bonds are what keep families united and friendships alive across distance and time.
6. Love is Interdependency Bonding
Interdependency bonding occurs when individuals recognize mutual responsibility or shared purpose. This kind of bond can exist even without physical closeness. It’s the kind of connection that allows teammates, long-distance friends, or coworkers to function well together through shared care, intent, and mutual trust.
7. Love is Attractive
Love draws things toward it—not by force, but through intentional, pleasing energy. Its communication is not coercive; it is resonant. We are drawn to what we love, and often to those who love us.
8. Love is Endurable
Love lasts. It sustains itself beyond individual events. Memory and emotional imprinting allow the effects of loving acts to continue shaping us long after the moment passes. True love also builds a sense of responsibility and ongoing loyalty—an awareness that love is not just a moment, but a stance.
9. Love is Constant
Not only does love endure over time—it also maintains a steady tone and energy. Within a particular relationship, love does not wildly fluctuate between hot and cold. Its constancy builds security and trust. A loving presence is reliable, not conditional.
10. Love is Extensive
Love reaches. It grows outward beyond the initial contact point. One loving interaction can create a ripple effect, touching not only the direct recipient but others beyond. Whether it’s the warmth of a loved home or the reach of a loving mission, love stretches.
These ten effects reveal the fundamental truth: love is a powerful and consistent force in the world. It is not theoretical—it is functional. And once we begin to recognize love’s patterns and outcomes, we can choose to align ourselves with them.
As Pitirim Sorokin, one of the early thinkers to deeply study love in sociological terms, wrote:
“The existence of love ranges from the zero point of love of oneself only, up to the love of all mankind, all living creatures, and the whole universe.”
And perhaps most important: where love is, life thrives.
Love leaves evidence. You can feel it in a room. You can see it in a child's eyes, hear it in a steady voice, watch it move through acts of kindness, or repair what seemed too broken to mend. Love does things. And yet, it never just "happens."
In The Technology of Love, every effect of love---every healing, every connection, every moment toward wholeness---can be traced back to something deeper. Love has roots. It grows out of conditions that allow it to live and thrive.
Each of these effects offers a distinct way that love shows itself in action. While I'll continue to reflect on them in different ways through future posts, I'm also working on something more in-depth---a course that will walk us through the effects, properties, and practical applications of The Technology of Love. I hope you'll stay with me on this journey.
In Blog Post #3, we'll explore the 4 causal factors of love---what has to be in place for love to occur.
