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I know the eyes are the windows to the soul or whatever, but the real crux of the moment was not just that I was really seeing someone, but that I was seeing someone really seeing me.

There was a lot of nervous smiling until, eventually, we settled in. I spent the first couple of minutes just trying to breathe properly. I’ve skied steep slopes and hung from a rock face by a short length of rope, but staring into someone’s eyes for four silent minutes was one of the more thrilling and terrifying experiences of my life. “Definitely less uncomfortable than the staring into each other’s eyes part would be.” Looking around the bar, I felt as if I had just woken up. We finished at midnight, taking far longer than the 90 minutes for the original study. I don’t know why we don’t go around thoughtfully complimenting one another all the time. It’s astounding, really, to hear what someone admires in you. It’s easy to see how the questions encourage what they call “self-expansion.” Saying things like, “I like your voice, your taste in beer, the way all your friends seem to admire you,” makes certain positive qualities belonging to one person explicitly valuable to the other. In particular, several studies investigate the ways we incorporate others into our sense of self. Aron’s research focuses on creating interpersonal closeness. For example: “Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner, a total of five items” (Question 22), and “Tell your partner what you like about them be very honest this time saying things you might not say to someone you’ve just met” (Question 28).

The moments I found most uncomfortable were not when I had to make confessions about myself, but had to venture opinions about my partner. But rarely does adult life present us with such circumstances. At 13, away from home for the first time, it felt natural to get to know someone quickly. Ours was the kind of accelerated intimacy I remembered from summer camp, staying up all night with a new friend, exchanging the details of our short lives. Aron’s questions make it impossible to rely on that narrative. We all have a narrative of ourselves that we offer up to strangers and acquaintances, but Dr. They began innocuously: “Would you like to be famous? In what way?” And “When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?” We spent the next two hours passing my iPhone across the table, alternately posing each question. Not only that, but I see now that one neither suggests nor agrees to try an experiment designed to create romantic love if one isn’t open to this happening.

Let me acknowledge the ways our experiment already fails to line up with the study. They invited the entire lab to the ceremony. The most tantalizing detail: Six months later, two participants were married. Then they stare silently into each other’s eyes for four minutes.
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They sit face to face and answer a series of increasingly personal questions. A heterosexual man and woman enter the lab through separate doors. I explained the study to my university acquaintance. So, like a good academic, I turned to science, hoping there was a way to love smarter. Each time I thought of leaving, my heart overruled my brain. I first read about the study when I was in the midst of a breakup.
