Valentine’s Day is on us once again and so our thoughts inevitably turn to love. For many people, not having a romantic partner is accentuated at this time, hence the explosion of interest in a twenty-first century phenomenon — speed dating. In a typical speed-dating event, people are given numbered badges at the beginning of the evening. Badge number 1 starts at table number 1, badge number 2 at table number 2 and so on. After 4 minutes, a bell is rung and all the women stay seated and all the men move round one table. This continues until every male has met every female in the room. Note that in a typical speed dating session, it is the men who circulate and the women who stay put. What would happen if this arrangement was reversed, and women were assigned to the traditionally male role of approaching potential romantic partners?
A recent study (Finkel and Eastwick 2009) did just that and came up with some surprising findings. Three hundred and fifty undergraduates were recruited for the study. In half the events, the men circulated while the women sat, but in the remaining events, it was the women who moved from table to table and the men who stayed put. After each 4-minute ‘date’, participants indicated their romantic interest in that person. After the event, the participants indicated on a website whether they would or would not be interested in seeing each person again.
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