By Tammy Scileppi
Singles, here’s a radical concept to help meet that someone special and get to know them on a spiritual level — paper bag dating.
America’s newest speed-dating trend, in which participants actually don a bag over their head, started right here in Queens with a recent Loveflutter event that helped participants focus on the important stuff, like personality.
In this thought-provoking, anti-looks social experiment hosted by the New York Hall of Science, 60 daring single New Yorkers, ages 25 to 35 – who were looking for a different type of dating experience – finally found it.
Joining in the fun that evening, they collectively agreed to say “no to shallow,” proving that sexy is more than skin deep and that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.
“More than one person joked that a science museum is the perfect place for this event because dating is all about chemistry,” said Dan Wempa, NYSCI’s vice president of external affairs. “In any case, it was great seeing so many people having fun. And joking aside, NYSCI is an ideal place for people to get to know each other. Our exhibits and programs encourage people to express their personalities and creative tendencies.”
In order to connect with potential partners, speed-daters had to disguise their faces with embellished brown paper bags, emblazoned with interesting and quirky, 140-character facts about themselves. It turned out that a fun story or a special talent made perfect conversation starters and really meant something when great hair or full lips didn’t fit into the equation.
And participants were super excited at the end, when they could enjoy a “de-bagging” finale over drinks.
So, why 140 characters? Behind the flutter of excitement is the UK’s most talked about personality-first dating app – Loveflutter. According to co-founder Daigo Smith, the lively speed-dating event at NYSCI actually mirrored the new app’s well-designed technology (blurred profile pictures can only be brought into sharp focus by first reading a 140-character quirky fact) and jump-started the first in a series of global Loveflutter Live events in major cities for 2015.
The almost surreal experience was first introduced by Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of psychology, University College London and NYU, whose works mostly include areas of personality profiling and psychometric testing.
Fueled by a looks-obsessed society, the professor’s interesting theory was put to the test: Do people make deeper connections when conversations rather than looks propel their dating decisions?
“Most people over-estimate the power of attractiveness,” said Chamorro-Premuzic. “They tend to be drawn primarily by looks and this explains the low success rate of relationships.”
On Loveflutter’s NYC social experiment, he said, “If an experiment can remove the prejudices associated with initial impressions/looks, people would have a chance to find someone who is suitable in the long term.”
According to the professor, this event was a chance to communicate with people’s minds “in the purest way,” and what they experienced was “others’ personality: the breadths of their soul.”
Smith said the New York event was the ideal way to introduce Loveflutter’s new dating app.
“We’re urging any single New Yorkers who felt inspired or intrigued by our social experiment to download the free app and join in our campaign for a more meaningful way to date, #SayNoToShallow,” said Smith.
Loveflutter for iPhone can be downloaded from app stores globally; for the web version visit www.loveflutter.com. Android version releasing, early 2015.
