Can This Simple Trick Make You Fall in Love? I Tried

"Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?"

I asked my date as I watched the grease drip off my pizza, like the sweat from my palms.

I was nervous. I've never been good at science. And now here I was treating a date like a science experiment, Psychologist Arthur Aron's 36 Question Love Experiment, to be precise, that you can try too.

You may have heard of Aron's test. It gained attention recently when New York Times author Mandy Len Catron wrote about it after applying it to a date in her article "To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This." It seemed to work for her; she wrote she is now in love with her date, saying that love is an action and she's in love because "we each made that choice to be."

Love as a science experiment does make sense. Isn't that what dating is essentially? An experiment to see if you (the control) and your date (the variable) are compatible? You test this compatibility through different settings: dates alone, dates with friends, dates to Ikea, and eventually the meeting your parents. You hypothesize the future of the relationship over monthly catch-ups with your close friends: "Jake is great. But I don't think it'll last much longer. He still seems pretty hung up on his ex," you'll confess to your friend Emily over a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

Aron's study took place over 20 years ago in a lab, when a straight couple of strangers sat face to face as they took turns answering increasingly personal questions (like how do you imagine you'll die), followed by a silent four-minute-long staring contest. The result of this experiment? Six months later, the couple was married and the whole lab was invited.

Aron's study took place sober in a laboratory; about 20 years later, the New York Times writer (Catron) tried this experiment buzzed at a bar in Vancouver. My test took place sober (me) and tipsy (him) in downtown Los Angeles on a second date. It was about a week ago, the air was brisk, as we faced each other in a pizza shop, followed by a staring contest in his Prius. Passersby probably thought we were doing a drug deal, as this was downtown.

I did not fall in love. If anything, I fell out of lust. Here are the flaws I found with this experiment:


Source http://www.popsugar.com/love/36-Question-Love-Test-36670677