[5] Relationship science was Hatfield's first professional research focus, beginning at the foundation of her career in the 1960s with an emphasis on human attraction and the nature of romantic love.
[1][6] In addition to Berscheid, she has conducted this research with a number of colleagues, including Leon Festinger—her dissertation advisor at Stanford University--, Elliot Aronson, William Walster,[7] Russell D. Clark,[8] and Susan Sprecher.
[12][13] Undaunted, Hatfield went on to write or co-write many books and papers based on her research, among them A New Look at Love, which won the American Psychological Foundation's National Media Award, and the often-cited Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality article "Gender Differences in Receptivity to Sexual Offers" (1989).
[15] Hatfield is former chair and professor of psychology at the University of Hawai'i and past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS).
In 2012, the Association for Psychological Science gave Hatfield the William James award for a Lifetime of Scientific Achievement.