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A post shared by Elephant Journal (@elephantjournal) on May 22, 2019 at 3:00am PDT

We like to think of attraction as this indescribable, immeasurable desire for another human.

And, while that may be true in some ways, biologist Dawn Maslar has found that’s not quite the whole picture.

As intangible as romance may often seem, scientists have been able to find some remarkably consistent data when it comes to the likelihood and factors of attraction between two people. Our five senses in particular play a large role in helping us rapidly calculate our level of attraction for someone.

Maslar gives us some insight into our own brains (and bedrooms) in this illuminating TED Talk: