Algorithms and Online Dating Won't Change Your Ancient Brain | Helen Fisher | Big Think

People think that modern technology is somehow changing love. It’s not changing love. The basic brain system for romantic love evolved millions of years ago. It’s not going to change whether you meet somebody on Tinder, on Match.com, or in the library, or on the skating rink, or in church. The brain doesn’t change.

And the moment that you meet somebody in a coffeehouse, in a bar, on a park bench, wherever it is, the ancient human brain clicks into action, and we court the way we always have. We smile the way we always have. We flirt the way we always have. We listen the way we always have. We try to size up the person the way the brain has always been sizing people up.

But modern technology is changing how we court. In fact, you know, I work with Match.com, the Internet dating site, and I’m their chief scientific advisor. And they have an algorithm. There are all kinds of algorithms out there. But these are not dating sites. These are introducing sites.

Once you go out with the person and meet them wherever you’re going to meet them, the ancient human brain clicks into action, and you court the way we always have. But they are introducing sites, and their algorithms are very useful. I mean, you know, most of us have this love map of what we’re looking for, and you’ve got to pair up somebody.

You have to offer dates of the right age, the right proximity, whether they’re five miles away or 50 miles away. The right background, the right educational level, some of the right interests. So dating sites can go so far, only so far, with their algorithms to give you the broad basics of what you’re looking for. That we can provide for you so that you spend less time, you know, kissing frogs...