The Real Phenomenon of Love at First Sight
Graphic by Bailey Richards. Image via Esquire
The idea of love at first sight is one of the most well-known conceptions of the mystical nature of love. To some, this might seem like an extreme romanticization, and to others it might seem like a beautiful truth of life. In any case, it is worthwhile to explore the phenomenon from which this idea most likely originated.
We’ve all had experiences where we’ve suddenly encountered a beautiful person and couldn’t help but stare for a little longer than usual, at times snapping out of the trance thinking, “Damn, they must’ve seen me, maybe I stayed looking for a little too long.” One must be lucky not to be caught staring at someone for a couple seconds too long, but what if, in fact, they hadn’t been staring for too long at all?
The concept of love at first sight seems to be born from the idea of time slowing down for a pretty face, which would be the source of a sensation of mysticism. However, magic has nothing to do with this phenomenon — it actually has more to do with the processes of our brain than with an otherworldly contortion of time.
The idea of time-perception is crucial to the understanding of this phenomenon, and it (rather self-explanatorily) refers to the subjective experience of time by a person during an event. For instance, many might be familiar with the sense of the growing insignificance of each passing year, as they make up less and less of our lives. In this sense, it might be easy to simply deduce that, in our subjective experience of it, time passes by slower when we see a pretty face.
However, the more important matter here is that of the mechanisms by which this occurs. To explore this, it will be useful to analyze other situations where we experience a significant rift between our subjective experience of time and the objective reality of it. Those who play fast-paced, high-intensity sports will be familiar with the sensation of pulling off intricate techniques on a whim and in only a few seconds. During these situations, most will agree that it feels as though time slowed down and they had more time to think than they should have –– many people report a similar effect in near-death situations as well. It’s clear that this isn’t a feeling exclusively reserved for the experience of beauty, and it seems it might not be as magical as many would wish.
What, then, is the string that pulls all these situations together? There’s hardly any similarity between seeing the person of your dreams on campus and almost being run over by a truck while crossing the street. It seems, though, that what pulls these things together is a very fundamental attribute, something that is very easy to look over and take for granted: your level of attention.
In this sense, when we are very focused on something we are overcome by the illusion of slowed time. This would make perfect sense, then, for why pretty faces specifically seem to slow down time, as it is ingrained in our biology that we are to be swayed by attractive people. In other words, it is well known that everyone, from newborns to the elderly, feels a dopamine rush when they see a pretty face. Additionally, since pretty faces aren’t usually a very common occurrence, we tend to store them in our memory –– the act of storing memory also influences the slowing down of time. Essentially, when we pay a lot of attention to something, it is usually because we have to process a lot of information. The combination of both of these events is what truly creates the perception of time slowing down.
Dr. Ruth Ogden of Liverpool John Moores University examined this effect by conducting a study about the way the brain perceives attractive faces. In this study, participants were shown several pictures of faces at different levels of attractiveness, and were then asked to estimate the amount of time each picture was on the screen –– it is important to note that the levels of attractiveness were assigned through a different study, where the faces were scored on a scale from one to seven (seven being the most attractive) by several participants. Results showed that participants estimated that the pictures of less attractive people were on screen for longer than those of more attractive people. At first glance, this might seem like a contradiction of all that has been said up until now. But the slowing of time is usually experienced at a particular instant, so it later manifests itself in our consciousness as a shorter experience. As it has been put by Qoves Studio, a facial aesthetics consulting group, “the smallest of highs feel extended in the moment, but are later recalled as a short, fleeting experience, yearning to go back for a longer period.”
Dr. Ruth Ogden
Even though the idea of love at first sight might not be as magical as it’s made out to be, it is nevertheless based on a very real phenomenon that lends itself well to the idea. In a way, pretty faces still do hold a great power over us, as we even slow down time just to look for a little bit longer.