In a message dated 3/26/01 5:14:07 AM Eastern Standard Time, stephend999@yahoo.co.uk writes:

<< Is it ? I had better tread carefully here but I would have thought that the feelings one has for Avon, or whoever, who we know are fictional characters are going to be different to the feelings we have for our significant others. Assuming that identical physiolgical changes occur when someone undergoing a crush sees Avon and when someone who is in love with a real person sees their beloved we are, none the less, identifying two discrete phenomenon. >>

The *relationship* we have with our significant others is quite different, if only because we have access to them in the real world. The mechanism that makes us fall in love or develop a crush on them at the beginning of the process is identical. The crush on the TV character is "safe" in our society's context because there is no contact and no realistic expectation that the relationship can ever be anything but a fantasy. It seems reasonable to assume that the chemical process that triggers this leverence process was developed to help us form lasting relationships and allow our offspring a better chance for survival and continuance of our genes, because both of the parents might still be together, protecting and providing for the offspring, a few years later.

There would be no logical genetic justification for a 'separate' crush mechanism on an unattainable potential mate.

Leah