Which The Love Hypothesis Character Are You?

Learn More About The Love Hypothesis

The Love Hypothesis began as a novel by Ali Hazelwood, a neuroscientist who wrote romance on the side. Published in 2021, it became one of the defining books of the BookTok era and spent months on bestseller lists. Its setup is simple and irresistible: a PhD student kisses the first man she sees to convince her best friend she has moved on, and the man turns out to be the most feared professor in the department.

The film adaptation arrived on Prime Video on September 23, 2026, directed by Claire Scanlon. Lili Reinhart, best known as Betty Cooper on Riverdale, plays Olive Smith, a third-year biology PhD candidate at Stanford researching pancreatic cancer. Tom Bateman plays Dr. Adam Carlsen, the brilliant young professor whose reputation for tearing apart student work has made him a campus legend.

Olive is the heart of the story. She is driven and gifted, but she doubts herself constantly and has spent years assuming nobody would choose her. The fake-dating plan exists because she wants her best friend Anh to feel free to date Jeremy, Olive’s ex, without guilt. That is Olive in a sentence: she will rearrange her whole life before she lets a friend feel bad.

Adam is the classic grumpy half of a grumpy-sunshine pairing. He is exacting and blunt, and his students fear him. What makes him work as a romantic lead is how quickly the story shows the other side: he agrees to the arrangement without much fuss, remembers small details, and backs Olive when it costs him something.

The supporting cast gives the story its warmth. Rachel Marsh plays Anh Pham, Olive’s ambitious and outspoken best friend. Jaboukie Young-White plays Malcolm Browne, Olive’s roommate, who has his own long list of grievances against Adam. Nicholas Duvernay plays Jeremy Langley, the good-natured ex at the center of the misunderstanding.

The story also has a serious thread. Arty Froushan plays Dr. Thomas Benton, a respected researcher whose offer of a lab position turns into harassment. How Olive handles that, and who believes her, gives the romance real stakes and says a lot about what women in science still face.

If you love romance adaptations, try our Fourth Wing, Bridgerton and The Summer I Turned Pretty quizzes next. Fans of Lili Reinhart can also find out which Riverdale character they are.

Whether you are an Olive, an Adam or the Malcolm of your friend group, the appeal of The Love Hypothesis is the same. It is a story about smart people who are terrible at saying how they feel, and about being chosen by someone who sees exactly who you are.