The Science of Speed-Dating - Part I | Psychology Today

The Science of Speed-Dating - Part I Psychology Today

Evolved Primate
Identity, decision making and human behavior from an integrated social science perspective.
by Daniel R. Hawes

October 22, 2009, Behavioral Economics
The Science of Speed-Dating - Part I


Excerpts:

As a main result from this study, we find that people perceive reciprocity in two different flavors, when it comes to romance. While in non-romantic contexts, we are quick to like those who like us back, in romantic contexts we like only those who like us back exclusively. That is, the authors find that the effect of reciprocity differs "depending on whether it is exhibited uniquely toward a particular individual (with positive reciprocal effects) or toward individuals in general (with negative reciprocal effects)."

So if we took any one of our Speed Daters and found that he or she only liked one other person enough to be interested in meeting again, we would usually find that this liking was a match. I.e. the liked person would also want to meet our Speed Dater again. In contrast, if we took a Speed Dater who felt like a number of participants were worthwhile meeting again, we would generally have a difficult time finding anybody who actually liked them back. The authors do not really delve into the sadness of this finding, but conclude that

"the emergence of these effects in a 4-min interaction governed by strong
social-desirability concerns and conversational norms suggests that humans
possess an impressive, highly attuned ability to assess such subtleties of
romantic attraction. In fact, the need to feel special or unique could be a
broad motivation that stretches across people's social
lives. The importance of this need is certainly pronounced in established
intimate relationships and friendships; the present study permits the additional
conjecture that the need to feel special plays a central role even within the
first few moments of a romantic encounter."

Read full post: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolved-primate/200910/the-science-speed-dating-part-i

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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.