Crush is a term that describes the feeling of infatuation someone else brings you. It can also refer to something that crushes or destroys, such as a train crushing a car that’s stopped on the tracks or an invading military dictator crushing a rebel uprising. In the most literal sense, crush can also refer to a soft drink, like the orange-flavored soda of the same name that’s been around since 1904.
The lay definition of crush encapsulates this concept: “a secret burning desire to be with someone who you find very attractive and extremely special, with whom you have low or no chances at all of being a couple” (urban dictionary). In our studies, participants were asked to report on a variety of factors related to having a crush, including whether they had experienced a crush in their romantic life, how long they had had a crush, and how intense their feelings were for their crush.
We also conducted two surveys with a different sample size of 641 participants (22-35 years). Participants were all in committed relationships and were asked to report on their current and past experiences with crushes and the extent to which they were experiencing these feelings in the context of their primary relationship(s). We restricted the type of people whom respondents could have a crush on to those they knew and could potentially interact with, rather than allowing them to select fantasy/celebrity crushes. In addition, we were able to control for several demographic characteristics, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and relationship status.
Participants’ open-ended responses emphasized that having a crush was fun and exciting. They cited a variety of positive outcomes, including increased self-esteem and confidence, ancillary improvements to their primary relationships, and novelty. The frequency of these themes suggests that these were the most important aspects of having a crush, despite the fact that attraction to alternative partners predicts relationship instability and can lead to dissolution (Miller, 2008).
The negative outcomes cited in participants’ open-ended responses included moral concerns. Many of these centered on fears that having a crush would be viewed as some form of betrayal or unfaithfulness in their primary relationships and, therefore, damage their trust. Other negatives were related to the stress of dealing with a crush while in a committed relationship, such as guilt and frustration.
Crush is available in a variety of flavors and sizes. While some, such as orange and diet orange, are found in most stores across North America, others are only distributed regionally. Pineapple Crush and birch beer crush, for example, are only sold in Canada, while cherry and strawberry crush are limited to certain markets in the US. Currently, the brand is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper of Plano, Texas, and is produced in the US, Canada, Australia and parts of Latin America. The company continues to innovate and release new limited-edition and seasonal sodas as well as promote existing ones through media partnerships and cultural events.