Sensory Speed Dating: Why Websites Are Looking To The Five Senses To Match Singles
Love at first sense? It’s possible, according to Guerilla Science, a London- and New York-based company working to “revolutionize how audiences experience science.”
Guerilla Science creates events and installations for its partners, collaborating on each one with practicing scientists in order to connect with people in new, inspiring ways. Its latest project is an interactive form of speed dating dubbed “sensory speed dating.” It’s the speed dating (some) singles know and love, only it challenges singles to find their match based on one of the five senses.
Here’s how it works: single men sit blindfolded at a table while single women (also blindfolded) are led to each table to engage with their potential match based on a particular sense. Steph Yin, a contributor for Vice’s Motherboard, described her personal experience, reporting that she did everything from study the cadence of a potential match’s voice to feeding another a banana — she even sniffed an armpit. The latter sounds weird, but studies show body odor can be a natural sign of compatibility.
“Much of our behavior is guided by sensory processing happening outside of our awareness,” said Heather Berlin, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and host of the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown, during Yin’s event. “Your brain is making decisions all the time, you become aware of it after the fact, and then you kind of make these post-hoc explanations for your behavior.”
It’s true: Time cited 2010 research that found a sub-region of the brain’s dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, called the rostromedial prefrontal cortex, is “the part of the brain that calculates whether… someone is right for you.” Irish researchers found the instantaneous judgments we make about another man or woman “depend on a complex mix of evaluations about physical and psychological compatibility.”
Sensory speed dating is similar to last year’s pheromone parties. Pheromones — the chemicals secreted in sweat and other body fluids — are believed to influence other people's behavior, including but not limited to sexual interest. So these parties match singles based on the smells they find most appealing. Literally, singles sniff random bags of dirty laundry, hold up the one they're interested in, and then meet the man or woman behind the bag.
It won't be for everyone, but these sensory dating experiences are a clear trend.
Olivia Koski, co-founder of Guerilla Science’s USA chapter, told Yin she hopes the event gives people permission to play like children, meet new people, and explore their senses openly. In a separate interview she did with Fusion (who also gave sensory speed dating a go), Koski summed up the entire process as “an entry point into a discussion about neuroscience." Well, a discussion, and if you're lucky, a date.