Net benefit from your lover will fluctuate. Sometimes your net benefit is high. Other times it will be low or even negative. Commitment means that you will not abandon your lover when your net benefit is low or negative. Commitment levels vary from person to person. Some people can take more pain and suffering than others.
If you feel that net benefit will eventually increase, you will be more committed. If you are able to find another love that will provide you more net benefit than the existing one, you will be less committed. Also, if your breakup cost is great, you will be more committed. Breakup cost will be explained in Chapter 4. Mathematically, commitment is written as:
Commitment
=
future net benefit - future net benefit from another love +
current breakup cost