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When 6 Couples Looked Into Each Other's Eyes For 4 Minutes, The Unexpected Happened

One wonderful result!

Cover image via Soul Pancake

According to a study by the psychologist Arthur Aron, intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them engage in an uninterrupted eye contact for 4 straight minutes

Image via Brian Rea/NYT

Back in January, Mandy Len Catron, a New York Times writer recreated Dr. Aron's study, which also involves a set of 36 questions, narrating how she applied the technique in her own life. The idea is that feeling vulnerable can cultivate closeness.

In Mandy Len Catron’s Modern Love essay, she refers to a study by the psychologist Arthur Aron (and others) that explores whether intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions. The 36 questions in the study are broken up into three sets, with each set intended to be more probing than the previous one.

The idea is that mutual vulnerability fosters closeness. To quote the study’s authors, “One key pattern associated with the development of a close relationship among peers is sustained, escalating, reciprocal, personal self-disclosure.” Allowing oneself to be vulnerable with another person can be exceedingly difficult, so this exercise forces the issue.

nytimes.com

Inspired by the NYT article, YouTuber SoulPancake assembled six couples to recreate the eye contact part and test this theory

Image via Soul Pancake

Among the couples they assembled were a pair of strangers, a couple on their fourth date and a couple married for 55 years

Image via Soul Pancake
Image via Soul Pancake

Each couple was put into a room on their own, and for 4 minutes, were tasked with sitting in silence while gazing into each other's eyes. During the experiment, after some uncomfortable fidgeting, their unease started to melt away.

Image via Soul Pancake

At the end of the test, they seemed surprised by the results, even the married couple who'd been together for 55 years

Image via Soul Pancake

"When I look at you really closely, I realise how much I need you and what you mean to me, because that's the truth," her husband later says to her. "I couldn't imagine being with anybody else."

Watch the full video to check out their responses:

Speaking of love, have you ever wondered what really happens in your body when you fall in love? Science does a good job of explaining all that goes inside us when we're head over heels:

If that made you smile, have a peek at some of the GREATEST love letters ever written:

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