I have found when someone being in love with someone who reciprocates or prior to knowing whether the “target” shares those feelings that behavioral tendencies often exist, which can negatively impact decision making.

Therefore, similar to negative emotional states, some positive states can lead to maladaptive behavior. So, there isn’t a need (a reason, or even a possibility) to change the feelings, but some monitoring and slowing down of the decision making process may be a reasonable measure during these times.

I would really be curious to hear what roles people believe could be negatively impacted by being in love, i.e., would you want your surgeon to be in the earliest stages of intense romantic love (I guess Grey’s Anatomy may have caricatured this) or a state leader (think Hugh Grant’s character in Love Actually)?

If you have any thoughts, or if anyone has any research that evaluates decision making/performance in vocational or other realms that is impacted by romantic feelings, I would be very interested. Please post a comment here or email me any authors or citations.