Speed dating focus of new mate selection research

It seems the heart knows what it wants and can figure out rather quickly whether someone you've just met is potentially compatible according to evolutionary psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers examined dating data from 10,526 participants of a speed-dating service to get a rare glimpse at how people act during genuine dating situations.

"Some people say they're looking for one kind of person, then choose another. Other people say that don even know what theye looking for. But our data suggest that, however it happens, people know it quickly when they see it," said Robert Kurzban, an assistant professor of Psychology. "People generally understand their own worth on the dating market, so they are able to judge each otherspotential compatibility within moments of meeting."

Each speed-dating party, organized by a company called HurryDate, consists 25 men and 25 women who interact with each other for three minutes. After the session, they indicate which of the people they may be interested in in the future.

Survey data such as age, eduction and income is also gathered from the participants. In addition, participants are asked to rate their own attractiveness and sexuality.

"Although they had three minutes, most participants made their decision based on the information that they probably got in the first three seconds," Kurzban said. "Somewhat surprisingly, factors that you might think would be really important to people, like religion, education and income, played very little role in their choices."

Evolutionary psychology has tended to view mate selection as based on the qualities a mate has to offer, such as power and money. When people meet face-to-face, however, things like income and smoking preferences don't seem to be of much importance.

"The speed dating offered us, as psychologists, something that we rarely get in conducting research: a systematic look at the genuine behavior of people selecting mates," Kurzban said. "The actual behavior of people is worth more to us than their stated beliefs. In this case, because participants might suffer the consequences of a bad date with someone who might look compatible on paper, they had more incentive to follow their hearts and desires. Behavior, more than self-reports, give us an important window into the underlying psychology of mating."

Kurzban had the idea to study speed dating when he saw an ad for it and realized there could be a virtual gold-mine of data. So he teemed with doctoral student Jason Weeden to analyze and interpret the data.

The researchers caution however that speed dating might not be typical of how people generally interact and may or may not be applicable to long-term relationships.

The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.