Seems like a reasonable topic for the romance forum if we change the question:
In one of your stories have you had a character who fell in love at first sight? How did that work?
Help, I want to depict a character who falls in love at first sight. How do I do this?
I have a character who falls in love at first sight, but my story has holes. Help!
Or something similar.
As for science, I found a few videos.
The Science Behind Love at First Sight by DNews. Note the related videos popping up about the science of love.
Does Love at First Sight Exist? by NIL. And finally,
Love at First Sight - Science on the Web #94 by HowStuffWorks. This last one mentioned Dr. Fisher's study, which I found
here in its full form (not just the abstract). Unfortunately I didn't find Startalk so I can't link to that episode.
In my own WIP, which takes place in the present day, my heroine is between her junior and senior years in high school, and mid-story she turns 17. I need the reader to see her as a strong-willed young woman who once she decides
what who she wants, she goes for
it him. No hesitation. No second thoughts.
Her great-grandmother and mother were that way too. They are native Americans (first nations if you're Canadian) and their people have a certain history about marriage that lasted into the first few decades of the 20th century.
In 1939 the heroine's great-grandfather was 18, newly graduated from boarding school, and about to start a decent-paying job in the oil fields, when he and his buddy drove up to Alberta to participate in a Sun Dance. Great-grandmother was 12 and feeling her oats when she spied this handsome young man. Her first thought was,
That's the man for me. I'm going to marry him. She pursued, and by the end of the week he found himself negotiating a bride price with her father. Horses bought and delivered, girl and her belongings prepared, the next summer after Sun Dance great-grandfather and his 13-year-old bride returned to Montana where they lived a long life together.
(The possible hole in this story is how an 18-year-old guy could fall for a preteen--except tradition, and he was ready for a wife. Note, idea taken from The Ways of My Grandmothers by Beverly Hungry Wolf; one of the women interviewed married at 9 to a man who was 18. Little detail was given, but it seem as if the parents cooked up the union and coming home to find a 9-year-old bride waiting for him may have been a surprise for the young man.)
Grandmother was a "free spirit," ran away from home, and only showed up long enough one spring to give birth before she disappeared for good. Leaving her parents to raise the little girl.
(Don't need grandmother for this story, so I gloss over her backstory. Not important.)
A few months after her 15th birthday my heroine's mother was running some errand when she spied the most attractive man. Yeah, he was older, quite a bit older, but there was something mysterious and intriguing about him. She soon discovered he was a professional gambler and on the reservation to take in the sights, unwind, and relax for a couple of weeks. Although white, he was a nomad and lived by his wits, much as her people had in earlier centuries. Maybe it wasn't love at first sight, but the attraction grew quickly and he stayed past his original plan. The girl even took him home to meet great-grandmother, who forbade the relationship. The guy ran out of time and had to leave, but arranged for a forged birth certificate that showed the girl's birth-year as being 3 years prior to actual. He then returned, met her in secret, they married at the county seat before driving to Vegas. My heroine was born about a year later and grew up in hotels and casinos, home-schooled by her mom.
(At 35 and having lived alone all his adult life, the heroine's dad was ready for a woman in his life--if she was the right one. Mom was the right one.)
These ancestral experiences make my heroine who she is. The only thing I can add is, "Kids, don't try this at home."