Can your chemistry be determined online?
I didn’t want to write another post poking fun at the big online dating companies so soon after the last one . However, Examiner.com published an interesting article on chemistry and emotions which once again gets me onto the subject.
This time under scrutiny are claims by leading online dating companies that they will hook you up with your soulmate by means of chemistry. Naming names, Eharmony claim they can predict such chemistry by means of asking questions. Anyone who has attempted, or even completed their screens and screens of personality questions has surely had the time to question the validity of this claim and possibly still had time to work out the meaning of life.
To quote Examiner.com directly their scientific explanation is:
“Phenyl-ethylamine is one of the chemicals released that intensifies our feelings of attraction, what some of us call ‘feeling a spark’. Dopamine is released that brings on feelings of physical desire and closeness. In turn, Dopamine stimulates the production of oxytocin, sometimes known as “the cuddle chemical.” The higher the levels of these chemicals and others the more intense the feelings “
Right, all very interesting and mildly complicated.
So how does a dating site predict what levels of each chemical exist within my body? How do they know what it takes to release such chemicals? Most importantly how do they know what type of person will provoke the correct chemical reaction in me?
Well I’ll tell you how. They ask pages and pages of question such as, ‘Am I good at analysing problems?’, ‘Do I often leave a mess in my room?’ and ‘Do I waste my time?’
Give me a break. Surely people don’t buy into this?
To find out more I enlisted the help of my colleague Dr. Humpledonk, expert in chemistry and more specifically the creation of edible love potions available at many leading stockists.
He had this to say “Online dating sites provide useful tools for filtering thousands of potential partners down to a select few based on your personality and interests. That’s as far as it goes. How can you possibly know if chemistry exists until you have met and spent time with someone?”
I couldn’t have put it better myself! What do you think?
