Good news for suffering singles: If you’re still waiting for a spark after three dates, it’s probably not coming. Even if someone seemed perfect for you on paper, studies show your level of attraction, enjoyment and emotional connection by Date 3 is pretty much the way you’re going to feel … forever.
If this goes against everything you’ve internalized about relationships, you’re not crazy. The dating industry is famous for rules and folk wisdom — thin attempts to impose order on life’s most intractable mystery: What makes one relationship click while another falls apart? Those seeking answers in science grabbed global attention by positing that the secret to lasting love lies in human evolution. Evolutionary psychology, which dominated the discourse in the 1990s and 2000s, became so entwined with pop culture that its early findings still shape modern perceptions of gender and dating.