The Future of Seduction

The social psychologist Eli Finkel, the director of the Relationships and Motivation Lab at Northwestern University, believes the future lies in using dyadic data, observing rather than predicting compatibility from an initial interaction. Non-conscious synchrony emerges when two people are interested in one another: within minutes, pupil dilation,

Natural rewards, including orgasm, contain a built-in satiety at consummation relying, inter alia, on endogenous opioids. But when we’re stuck in the dopaminergic excitement of seeking, Kringelbach explained, there is no signal telling us when to stop.

The problem with the minimal-investment approach to seduction – bred by an overload of options on dating apps and infiltrating courtship more broadly – is that it is difficult to drum up desire in the absence of effort.

In one study of singles on the pull in a bar, researchers observed 109 distinct ‘attraction tactics’, including offering to buy someone a drink, sucking seductively on a straw, puffing out one’s chest, and maintaining eye contact.

A study out of Stanford showed that a staggering 80 per cent of single straight adults had not gone on a single date or hooked up in the previous year, leading the researcher to conclude that the main utility of the apps for heterosexuals might be ‘for flirting or for browsing’.

Being made to feel special – even if just for an evening – is at the crux of seduction regardless of gender.

Trading in insecurities, dating is one of few services in which dissatisfaction leads users to question themselves instead of the product, and even increase spending to up the odds of success.

The matching potential of the genome is not entirely without merit: kissing is hypothesised to be subconsciously used by women to gauge the health and genetic make-up of a potential mate through saliva, as well as for eliciting arousal through the exchange of hormones.

In communities around the world in which there is a surplus, or perceived surplus, of women, men pursue a mating strategy geared towards multiple casual relationships.