The Real Laws of Attraction

And that's good news, right?
Finkel: It's good news with regard to earning prospects and bad news with regard to looks!
 
So what's the verdict on beauty vs. brains?
Finkel: It might be that men and women don't differ in how much looks matter in initial attraction. We are running a study now, in collaboration with a speed-dating company, with 6,500 people who were single at the time. Now three years later, we're following up to see whether they got married and did that person match. What we'll be able to do is see if their stated ideals three years ago actually match with the person they're marrying.

Eastwick: My hunch is that their ideals changed, not that they found the person who matched their original ideals.

The other dating adage is that attractive people get extra benefits in life and may just marry other attractive people, who earn more money. Right?
Eastwick: Attractive women are marrying attractive husbands, and attractive people make more money because attractive people get more of everything in life.

Did you actually get some love matches in the course of your study?
Eastwick: We did create several couples. I don't know if any of those couples are still around today. When we like to brag about the effectiveness of speed dating, we will talk about figures like one third of our speed daters in the month following the event spent at least some time hanging out with somebody they hadn't known prior to the event.

How did you find the participants?
Eastwick: We always collaborate with student groups. We had to turn away hundreds and hundreds of people.
 
So lots of students wanted to do their part for research and science?
Eastwick: They'll date for science, yes!
 
Finkel: We have videotapes of the dates this time. It's funny how frequently people will say things like, 'This is kind of goofy, but I'm happy to do it. It's for a study.'
 
Are you married?
Finkel: I am engaged, and Paul is in a serious relationship.
 
Did you ever meet anyone through speed dating?
Finkel: We did as a class field trip go speed dating four years ago. It was fun. Basically everybody Paul met said yes to him. I ended up dating someone.

© 2008