It seems easy to overvalue these results. Speed dating call backs are cheap and shallow, so while the differences are interesting, I don’t think they generalize well.
First, they should have had a scenario where both groups rotate, or alternate moving. It’s not unthinkable that the mere act of getting up and moving around changes how one feels vs. sitting in the same chair for an hour or so. This would explain some of the results without any recourse to the theories proposed by the authors; interestingly, they do not make a serious effort at providing alternative explanations (or even explaining why, say, male interest fell when men sat—they just kind of assume it’s naturally approaching the female average).
It’s also significant that participants were all undergrads at a good school; this may make men more comfortable with being approached and women more comfortable with approaching, or it may just make them more conscious of this fact. It may be representative, it may even understate the effect, or it may not be representative at all.
Most significantly, speed dating really doesn’t approximate reality that well, even if it is convenient for experiments. Who approaches whom can (and, in my experience, does) send important signals about personality and desirability, and these carry on much further than whether someone is willing to exchange contact info. So it’s unclear how useful this data is for anyone who doesn’t organize speed dating events, at least without further research.
It seems easy to overvalue these results. Speed dating call backs are cheap and shallow, so while the differences are interesting, I don’t think they generalize well.
First, they should have had a scenario where both groups rotate, or alternate moving. It’s not unthinkable that the mere act of getting up and moving around changes how one feels vs. sitting in the same chair for an hour or so. This would explain some of the results without any recourse to the theories proposed by the authors; interestingly, they do not make a serious effort at providing alternative explanations (or even explaining why, say, male interest fell when men sat—they just kind of assume it’s naturally approaching the female average).
It’s also significant that participants were all undergrads at a good school; this may make men more comfortable with being approached and women more comfortable with approaching, or it may just make them more conscious of this fact. It may be representative, it may even understate the effect, or it may not be representative at all.
Most significantly, speed dating really doesn’t approximate reality that well, even if it is convenient for experiments. Who approaches whom can (and, in my experience, does) send important signals about personality and desirability, and these carry on much further than whether someone is willing to exchange contact info. So it’s unclear how useful this data is for anyone who doesn’t organize speed dating events, at least without further research.