The idea of “love languages” is a fairly new concept. The term basically refers to the way that individuals like to express and receive love. Some people may consider words of affiliation as their receiving love language but then prefer to express their love by giving gifts to the one they love.
Five Main Love Languages:
- Gift-giving and receiving
- Words of affirmation
- Physical touch
- Acts of service
- Spending quality time
Love Languages
While it has always been assumed that love languages are individual, a new study from the online language learning platform, Preply, has found that perhaps there are patterns in preferred love languages emerging based on each generation.
Do the results hold true for you or are you different from other people of your generation? Let’s take a look.
Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers (those born between 1955 and 1964) prefer to show their love for someone by spending quality time with them. In total, 33% of Baby Boomers said this was they preferred this love language over the other four options.
In terms of receiving love, the Baby Boomers in the study said that physical touch was their preference. They also expressed that words of affirmation was the love language that they struggle the most with.
Gen X
People born between 1965 and 1980 (Gen X) said their preferred love language when it came to expressing their love for someone was to provide acts of service. This includes things like picking up their favourite snacks when out and about and/or opening doors for them.
When it comes to receiving love, people from Gen X’s preferred love language is physical touch. This includes things like holding hands in public and/or cuddling on the sofa in front of the television while watching a movie.
Millennials
Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) say that they are most comfortable expressing their love by providing acts of service for a partner. On the flip side, they said they most appreciated it when a partner chose to spend quality time with them as opposed to the other love languages.
The study also found that Millenials are the most passionate about love languages. Two in five said that love language incompatibility has caused tension in current or past relationships, illustrating how big a deal they can be for certain people.
Gen Z
People born between 1996 and 2010 (Gen Z) said that spending quality time with a partner is their preferred way of expressing love. Interestingly, this is the same as Baby Boomers, suggesting love languages could be cyclical. In terms of receiving, participants from Gen Z voted most favorably for quality time.
Based on the results of the study, Gen Z is the laziest generation when it comes to love as they voted the least favourably for acts of service. Like all other generations, they also found that words of affirmation are the most difficult love language to express.
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