Love vs Infatuation tests by Chip Ingram

Test #1 – Time

Love grows and all growth requires time.

Infatuation may come suddenly.
Test #2 – Knowledge

Love grows from a knowledge of all of a person’s characteristics.
Infatuation may arise from an acquaintance with only a few of these characteristics.


Test #3 – Focus

Love is others centered, and results in sharing.
Infatuation is self-centered.

Test #4 – Singularity

Genuine love is centered on one person only.
An infatuated individual may be “in love” with two or more persons simultaneously.


Test #5 – Security

An individual in love tends to have a sense of security and a feeling of trust after considering everything involved in his relationship with the other person.
An infatuated individual tends to have a blind sense of security based upon wishful thinking rather than upon careful consideration, or a sense of insecurity.

Test #6 – Work

An individual in love works for the other person or for their mutual benefit. His ambition is spurred and he plans and saves for the future.

An infatuated person may lose his ambition, his appetite, and his interest in everyday affairs. He thinks of his own misery
Test #7 – Problem Solving

A couple in love faces problems frankly and attempts to solve them. Barriers to the relationship are approached intelligently and removed.
In infatuation, problems tend to be disregarded or glossed over.


Test #8 – Distance

Love tends to be constant.
Infatuation often varies with geographical distance between the couple.


Test #9 – Physical Attraction & Involvement

Physical attraction is a relatively smaller part of a relationship when a couple is in love. Any physical contact they have tends to have meaning tends to express what they feel toward each other.
Physical attraction is a relatively greater part of an infatuated couple’s relationship. Physical contact tends to be an end in itself. It represents only pleasurable experience devoid of meaning.


Test #10 – Affection

In love an expression of affection tends to come relatively late in the couple’s relationship.
In infatuation, it may come earlier, sometimes from the very beginning.


Test #11 – Stability

Love tends to endure.
Infatuation may change suddenly, unpredictably.


Test #12 – Delayed Gratification

A couple in love does not feel an almost irresistible drive toward haste.

Infatuated couples tend to rush. Postponement is intolerable to them and they interpret it as deprivation rather than preparation.