On a scale from 1-5 (where 1 = not at all and 5 = completely) indicate the extent to which you agree with each:

1. Love is an uncontrollable force
2. I am open about sharing my hopes and fears with people I don’t know well
3. I love being in love
4. Love is an ‘all or nothing’ feeling
5. I am willing to take risks for excitement and new experiences

Add all for total (min = 5, max = 25). Lower scores may suggest a more measured pace, and higher scores might indicate an inclination to fall in love more quickly.

Socrates said: ‘The hottest love has the coldest end,’ but relationships made in the heat of the moment are not inevitably doomed. Nor does a slow-burning intimacy always fan the flames of eternal love.

Psychotherapist Adam Phillips suggested romantic idealists ‘are deranged by hope, in awe of reassurance, impressed by their pleasures’ yet it’s the cynical who are ‘dispiriting because they are always getting their disappointment in first’. Fast or slow, hope springs eternal.