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The Science of Speed Dating

science experiment
Owen Collins, a volunteer from the audience, helps presenter Lish Hogge with a science experiment

As a lead-in to the National Library’s Love and Desire conference in September, the Friends of the NLA hosted a fun Friday evening event, ‘Perfect Match or Perfect Marketing: The Science of Speed Dating’.

Lish Hogge, Questacon science communicator extraordinaire and fast-talking science nerd with a GSOH (good sense of humour) was the guide for the evening. After collecting name tags identifying their relationship status (single, attached, or ‘not telling’) and their favourite pizza topping (more on this later), the 140 participants settled in to be entertained by explanations of the science of attraction.

For those of you who missed out on the evening, here is a brief recap on what does and doesn’t work in the dating scene:

  • forget pheromones —somehow the receptors in the nose were bred out of humans and, although everyone smells sexy, no-one notices
  • girls—pad yourselves out to look like a cello, an object with the ideal ratio of curves
  • guys—deep voices are sexy. (I think we all knew this one!)
  • walking with hips thrust forward is attractive to both sexes
  • ‘What’s your favourite pizza topping?’ is scientifically proven to be the most successful line used in speed dating.

Lish Hogge explained it all much better than this, and you should track her down to really understand it, but it was certainly a fun night.

The evening finished off with the audience splitting into groups for some practice speed dating. While this worked better for some people than others, we were still trying to get the crowds out the doors an hour after the event officially finished. Many then moved over to the Hyatt to continue getting to know each other. There are reports that at least two couples found love on the night!

This was a highly successful event for the Friends of the Library and there may well be another similar event in 2007. It certainly shows the general population that the Library isn’t as conservative as people might think.

Sharyn O'Brien
A/g Friends Executive Officer