Exact Answer: Approximately 4 Months
A crush can be defined as a brief period of infatuation for a particular person. Infatuation means a short-lived admiration, passion, or affection towards someone. Thus, a crush is a person in someone’s life about whom one cannot stop thinking.
On the other hand, love is an intense feeling for someone which is long-lived and is accompanied by deep affection and loving emotions for the other person. Love is long-lasting in comparison to crushes which is nothing but instant infatuation.
How Long Do Crushes Last?
It is common for one to get confused between actual love and crush as both are intense feelings and at times it might get difficult to differentiate between both. However, time plays a crucial role in determining whether one’s feelings for the other person are out of love and affection or it is simply infatuation.
Crushes are mainly based on physical attraction and outward appearances whereas love comes from within the person and is based on values such as trust, understanding, maturity, etc. Crushes develop quite instantly and thus, do not last beyond a few months while love takes time to grow and can last for a lifetime.
Loving someone might start as an infatuation and thus, a crush can be the initial stage of loving someone, but this is not always the case. A crush might metamorphose into love after a period or it could just fade away as it is temporary, unlike love which is permanent.
When a person is someone’s crush, the person only sees the good qualities and perfections for their crush, filtering all the negative aspects of that person aside. However, when a person has found their love, they accept the person with all their imperfections without any judgments.
According to recent studies on this topic, research has shown that crushes can last for a maximum of 4 months, and if the feeling and affection for the person continue beyond that, there might be a possibility from that crush to transform into romantic love.
| Condition | Duration |
| Crushes last for | Approx. 4 months |
| Love lasts for | Lifetime |
Why Do Crushes Last This Long?
A crush on someone might develop merely out of imagination or idealism. A person might develop intense feelings for someone based on their one-sided infatuation without thoroughly knowing the person beforehand. When such is the case, it cannot be termed as love as it is mutual and happens gradually, except in the case of love at first sight.
Crushes are not serious commitments as they can happen with any person and disappear a while later. Crush is nothing but a fantasy about a person which seems like love in the beginning but in reality, it is not. This being said, a crush, in theory, can have no set limit as it is like one’s imagination about the other person.
A crush can dissipate after days or it can last for months, but in the end, it depends on the person in consideration. There can be no fixed time for a crush to last. A crush is just an attraction towards a person based on infatuation which merely feels like love. Thus, as long as one does not grow out of their infatuation, a crush can last as long as one makes it last.
Therefore, the duration for which a crush might last would be dependent on whether or not the person takes any step to further their affection for their crush and transform into something bigger like love or simply wait for the time one gets over their crush due to a variety of reasons.
Conclusion
A crush can last for just a few hours or it might take years for one to get over their crush. However, as per experts, the most common duration for a crush to last is about 4 months. It is important to note that a crush has no set time limit or expiration date. It is just a feeling for someone and hence can last for hours, days, weeks, or months.
Thus, if one keeps on having a crush on the person they think they like, that crush can last as long the person makes it last, otherwise, one might get over their crush, if it is just infatuation, in about 3 to 4 months.
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