8.2 seconds needed to fall in love

Anger has been the theme of the last few posts, so let’s flip to the other side and investigate love.  Somewhere in Europe, scientists have determined that the time needed for a man to fall in love at first sight is 8.2 seconds.

The longer a man’s gaze rests on a woman when they meet for the first time, the more interested he is.

If it last just four seconds, he may not be all that impressed. But if it breaks the 8.2 second barrier, he could already be in love they say.

Ok doc, sometimes you get what’s call the “double take”; you want to make sure you saw everything there was to see.  Or if a guy is really drunk he’s trying to get his vision to focus beyond the tip of his nose.

However the same is not true for women. They let their eyes linger on men for the same length of time whether they find them attractive or not.

Because things like hygiene, employment status, intelligence, and sense of humor can’t be determined in less than eight seconds.  How did scientists figure out the speed at which we look over each other?  Before we get to that, why not a little eye candy…

Hidden cameras were used to secretly track the eye movements of 115 students as they spoke to actors and actresses. They were then asked to rate their conversation partner’s attractiveness.

The men looked into the eyes of actresses they considered beautiful for an average of 8.2 seconds, but that dropped to 4.5 seconds when gazing at those they rated less attractive, the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior reported.

The female students, however, looked at the actors for the same length of time. The researchers believe that men use eye contact to seek out fit and fertile mates.

But women are more wary of attracting unwanted attention because of the risks of unwanted pregnancy and single parenthood.

I’m not completely sold on this study.  They used actors and actresses, a group of people who are used to attention and being stared at.  They are different  from the general population. (see 30 Rock’s  The Bubble episode with Jon Hamm for a further comedic explanation of this concept)

If they had used regular people in everyday situations I doubt they would have gotten the same findings.  Be honest, if you’re checking someone out, you look and if they don’t mind– you keep looking.  Until it becomes uncomfortable  and one of you says something, which could range from, “Something you want?” or “Take a picture it’ll last longer.” or “Hi.”