The Love Experiment by Dating App Once: A New Recipe For Love

Is there a recipe for love? One which doesn’t ask how far you’ve progressed in education and how much income you generate? According to the dating app, Once, there is indeed a particular formula and it starts with a new matching algorithm designed by an all-women team: The Love Experiment.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Once dating app.

In the world of online dating, it seems the ‘pull’ – the thing that drives us to download and sign up, rests in the countless potential suitors at our disposal. Out of the hundreds of individuals; at least three of them have to be ideal – we just need to swipe, swipe and swipe through the haystack. Well, in the same way minimal, slow-fashion added breath to the speed of fast-fashion, Once has cut through the swiping to deliver slow-dating.

Launched in 2015, Once offers users just 1 match per day, delivered around noon with 24 hours of exclusive attention. Rather than having to waste time going through a varied assortment of profiles which may provide no favourites, Once let’s you focus more on a specifically chosen match. And now with their love experiment, you can find your ‘perfect person’ without the patriarchal algorithm systems currently in place.

Deconstructing the recipe of love

For twenty years, men have been responsible for online dating matching algorithms. This had led to questions that resemble social security forms – emphasis has laid on age, height; look-based ‘hot or not’ games.  To deconstruct this standard, CEO of Once, Clementine Lalande, enlisted the help of French psychoanalyst Fabienne Kramer, British psychologist Dannielle Haig, and British dating expert and app founder Charly Lester. Together, the four women created The Love Experiment – a set of 28 questions designed to identify a person’s emotional profile.

The questions assess introversion and extroversion, a person’s independence in a relationship, intuition and the importance of physical and intellectual connection. Rather than the typical, ‘What’s your ideal date location?’, the questions in the love experiment are fun and unique.

Using research which involved surveying more than 1,000 established couples, the Once team found compatibility derives from a subtle set of differences based on the topics their questions assessed (intuition, extroversion, independence, physicality). To achieve the best emotional match, couples ideally need three in common. All four may be too similar while none in common could be bad news.

So, how does it all work?

Would you rather live twice as long or win the lottery? Breathe underwater or meet aliens? Once you have answered all the questions (yes, including these two), you will be told your personal archetype. Out of the 16 types, you may find yourself as a rockstar, professor, knight; maybe a magician?

With your archetype, you have the opportunity to find other singles based on your emotional compatibility. You can opt for ‘chemical bond’ (an ideal amount of difference for a long-lasting relationship which maintains individuality), ‘magnetic attraction’ (singles with the same results as you) or ‘explosive reaction’ (your exact opposite). This choice lets you put Once’s love experiment to the test yourself. It also let’s you choose what type of match you’re after.

‘It’s 2021. We know that not everyone is looking for a 49 year marriage, and some people want something explosive and fun, with someone completely different, and so we believed it was important to leave singles in the driving seat’. 

Dating expert, Charly Lester

I’m all for replacing the stereotypical dating assessments with something more interesting and suitable for emotional matches. Despite the many apps and sites out there, there is still growth and development needed. And perhaps this is it. Not a dating app offering a particular profession or heaps of local singles, but one switching the standards and helping to make the process quicker, more fun and ultimately, more possible for love.

Once dating app has more than 10 million users worldwide. Why not give the love experiment a try today. The app is free and available on Google Play and App Store.