Neuroscience
Those people who give the impression they like pretty much everyone, tend to be popular and liked themselves. But a new study of speed daters suggests the opposite is true in a romantic context. In this case, the more daters a person reported finding desirable, the less likely they were to be rated desirable themselves – a finding not explained by (lack of) physical attractiveness, which was controlled for in the calculations.
The finding suggests a person's desperation for love can be picked up by others in as little as four minutes, an effect that is off-putting to potential dates who want to be made to feel special.
Dan Ariely (MIT) and colleagues made these observations after setting up a speed-dating session among 150 undergrad students. Each student conducted a four-minute 'date' with between 9 and 13 other students of the opposite sex. After each date, the students answered a few brief questions about how desirable they found the last person, how much chemistry they had, and how likely they thought that person was to find the other daters desirable.
“...the need to feel special plays a central role even within the first few moments of a romantic encounter”, the researchers said.
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Eastwick, P.W., Finkel, E.J., Mochon, D. & Ariely, D. (2007). Selective versus unselective romantic desire. Psychological Science, 18, 317-319.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
The downside of having too much love
Those people who give the impression they like pretty much everyone, tend to be popular and liked themselves. But a new study of speed daters suggests the opposite is true in a romantic context. In this case, the more daters a person reported finding desirable, the less likely they were to be rated desirable themselves – a finding not explained by (lack of) physical attractiveness, which was controlled for in the calculations.The finding suggests a person's desperation for love can be picked up by others in as little as four minutes, an effect that is off-putting to potential dates who want to be made to feel special.
Dan Ariely (MIT) and colleagues made these observations after setting up a speed-dating session among 150 undergrad students. Each student conducted a four-minute 'date' with between 9 and 13 other students of the opposite sex. After each date, the students answered a few brief questions about how desirable they found the last person, how much chemistry they had, and how likely they thought that person was to find the other daters desirable.
“...the need to feel special plays a central role even within the first few moments of a romantic encounter”, the researchers said.
___________________________________
Eastwick, P.W., Finkel, E.J., Mochon, D. & Ariely, D. (2007). Selective versus unselective romantic desire. Psychological Science, 18, 317-319.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- What Assumptions Do We Make About People When We First Meet Them?
Most personality traits and other characteristics are “normally distributed”, meaning that a new person is more likely to be in the middle than on the extremes, whether we’re talking about extraversion, intelligence or enthusiasm for Mexican food....
- Mimicry Improves Women's Speed-dating Success
Women hoping to appeal to speed-dating partners should try subtly mimicking the words and body-language of their dates. That's according to Nicholas Gueguen whose new study shows that women who mimic are rated by men as more sexually attractive. Gueguen...
- The Neuroscience Of Speed Dating Choice
Can brain activity measured while rating potential dates predict later choices at speed dating events? Haven't you lay awake at night wondering if 36 voxels in your rostromedial prefrontal cortex (RMPFC) can predict your future romantic...
- The Journal Of Speed Dating Studies
Speed-DatingEli J. Finkel and Paul W. Eastwick KEYWORDSspeed-dating • romantic attraction • relationships • thin slices • social relations model ABSTRACT—Scholars have recently begun to harness the immense power of speed-dating...
- Motivated Cognition Lab
The Motivated Cognition Laboratory is currently recruiting heterosexual University of Maryland students for a research on Speed Dating and Attraction. The first part of the Study consists of a short lab study that will probably take less than 15 minutes....