Natural Selection

In this experiment, participants went on four-minute ‘speed dates’ with approximately 12 opposite-sex individuals during each event

We’ve long been told that women are more selective when it comes to the men they choose to date. US researchers organised 350 college students into 15 speed-dating events. Participants went on four-minute ‘speed dates’ with approximately 12 opposite-sex individuals during each event. After each date, participants rated their romantic desire and romantic chemistry for that partner, as well as how much self-confidence they felt they had on that particular date. The researchers found that the speed daters who approached their partners relative to those who stayed sitting would experience a greater romantic desire and chemistry toward their partners, and were more likely to respond ‘Yes, I would see this person again’. In other words, the people who rotated from person-to-person were less selective than those sitting, regardless of which gender was rotating. When men rotated, women (the ones sitting) were more selective. But when women did the rotating, men (the ones sitting) were more selective. Nothing else changed.