Brian sat across the table from Jenny, a cute 21-year old student, trying to start up conversation. Their name tags and somewhat contrived surroundings made the first minute a bit awkward, but soon, they began chatting comfortably. He runs every morning and she reads Jane Austen. Brian liked Jenny, but then again, Brian had liked a lot of people he'd met at speed dating that night. Sure, some had been better matches than others, but he's an optimist and thinks things would be fun with a lot of people. When the bell rang after four minutes, they said their goodbyes and Brian checked the box next to her name on his note card, his sixth check of the night. Jenny liked Brian too. She got up thinking, "What a sweet guy,"...but didn't check the box. It was only four minutes, but something in that brief time convinced Brian that he'd like to see Jenny again and convinced Jenny that the feeling wasn't mutual. Date over. What just happened there? With this date and dozens like it cataloged in his 2005 study, Prof. Eli Finkel set his sights on answering that very question. In fact, Brian's case was not an uncommon one. He's what Finkel would call a "liker" – someone who is both liked by and attracted to many people, but received stunningly few matches. Many studies have shown why these people have so many friends, says Eli Finkel, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, "It makes sense too; I mean, who doesn't like the liker?" In non-romantic settings, these people are treasured as friends for their compassion, their sociability, and their cheerfulness. With this study, though, Finkel and his colleagues have found bad news for likers. "The people who liked everybody were actually not desired in our study," says Finkel. His study, conducted in a series of speed dating sessions on campus, sought to find the root of the ever-elusive initial chemistry. "If I say I'm attracted to Jenny, we don't know whether Jenny's spectacular or I'm just attracted to everybody, or there's some unique spark between us," states Finkel, "But if you have these consensus ratings, you can find out that, say, for example, Jenny is not necessarily desired by all men at the session, and I don't necessarily like everyone I meet, but there's some unique spark about Jenny and me together that makes me really desire her in particular." According to Finkel, there are two types of attraction: unique attraction (liking one person specifically) and general attraction (liking almost everyone), and both make a person more likable in a platonic setting. "In non-romantic context, if I meet a bunch of people and there's someone I uniquely like, he or she is going to like me back," he states, "but also, if I generally like everybody, they like me too." Switch to a romantic setting, though, and their fortunes change. Unique attractions were still reciprocated, just as in non-romantic settings, but generalized attraction had the reverse effect. "In this romantic context, if I like everybody, the people I meet do not like me, and it looks like that's due to desperation," says Finkel. These results remained true even after controlling for physical attractiveness, meaning the results weren't a result of objectively unattractive people liking everyone and being disliked. Setting aside, for one moment, the individual bad news this research holds, it's also a stunning testament to humans' innate perceptive powers. Remember, in a mere four minutes of conversation, speed daters were able to discern whether someone's attraction was exclusive to them or general to everybody. Finkel states, "What's amazing about it is, we can somehow pick up on the fact that someone liked us, but not only that, we can also tell the particular flavor of that liking – whether it's an exclusive or non-exclusive attraction." After meeting each dater, subjects were asked, "How many other people do you think this person said ‘yes' to?" and the estimates were stunningly accurate. People somehow knew whether the other person's attraction was unique or general. "They're able to make these judgments with no data, and basically no way of knowing other than the momentary four-minute meeting they had," Finkel notes, "They were able to make judgments about how selective someone is without even seeing them in any other context." Still, there's hope for Brian's romantic future. Finkel's larger goal is to track relationships in the long-term, to find out whether these initial attractions lead to successful relationships and marriages. He tentatively remarks, "I really think they don't." Still, theres hope for Brians romantic future. Finkels larger goal is to track relationships in the long-term, to find out whether these initial attractions lead to successful relationships and marriages. He tentatively remarks, I really think they dont. Comments? E-mail Matt at m.cohlmia@gmail.com.