Speed dating
Dating is a very common social activity among people of different age groups of both the sexes in our society. People get engaged in such an activity to assess each other and to see whether they can set up a fruitful private and personal relationship between themselves which may ultimately lead to marriage.
Traditionally, these dates were arranged by a third party who might be a member of the family, a friend or a professional matchmaker. In the olden days, parents encouraged the couples after getting engaged to go for date so that they could know each other better before their marriage.
Another practice of dating that has developed using modern technology is online dating. This involves the use of internet for the social activity of dating.
Besides the practice of regular dating and online dating, there is the practice of speed dating which is also getting popular. This practice was initially started by one sect of the Jewish community in United States in 1998.In this system of dating, a group of people meet together at some public place like a public gardens or community hall for several hours. In such dating, each person sits with another member for a fixed period of time to enable them to know each other better.
After this period is over, they move and sit with another person and the process is repeated with a view to select a suitable partner for oneself. By 2000 it started to become popular when TV started to show the serial Sex and the City. Advocates of such dating tell that it saves time as the people have to decide quickly whether they want to set up a romantic relationship between themselves because these first impressions might become permanent.
These events generally require people to register in advance. Registration may be free or may be prepaid online using credit card. Organizers may strive to see a balance among sexes others may not. Contact information of each other cannot be given during these dates. At the end of the events, each person gives the organizers a list of persons to whom their contact information could be passed on.
If there is a match between any two persons choice, then there contact information is passed on to each other. In speed dating each male meets every female participant and so the choice becomes quite large.
The advantage of such dating is that people are coming here specifically select their life partner. They are generally grouped together for similar age group or similar background. It does not require take too much. Because people are meeting in a group they do not feel out of place especially for the women attending such a meet. People do not have to accepted or reject person on the spot.
A person does not get stuck with a person with whom one does not feel comfortable for a long time. There is a scope that a person meets different types of people.
In a study made by University of Pennsylvania in 2005 has shown that people generally make their choice in the first three seconds of their meeting. Farther, such issues like religion, previous marriage, smoking habits etc. was found playing much less role.
Another study made in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2006 showed that 45% women and 22% men participating in such an event made their choice within the first thirty seconds.
In an interesting study made by University of Bern in 1995 showed that women seemed to be attracted to the smell of a man with a different MHC profile than her own profile. But, this effect was reversed for those who were on oral contraceptive.
This effect may come into play in a speed date, if the date continues lasts quite long time and they are seated close together.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 5:48 am and is filed under Dating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.