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You know, intuitively this makes sense and regardless of my criticisms I agree, but still, the critical part of me has to ask if these results really do generalise beyond the speed-dating-type scenario? I think that's not a conclusion we can make because the study doesn't provide evidence that people form impressions of others in a speed-dating situation in the same way they do in other dating situations, let alone online.
Further, the study controlled for physical attractiveness but it doesn't mention personality attributes beyond the tendency for generalised romantic desire. So it's possible that some other personality attribute was responsible for the results and generalised romantic desire happened to correlate (though if that's the case it would probably just mean that that other personality attribute mediated the generalised romantic desire).
However, it could be that another personality attribute was much more important than the perceived generalised romantic desire. If that is the case maybe such a desire isn't a problem, it could just be a small part of something much greater.
And that matches my personal experience. I don't hide my pickiness (my Facebook status has never said "Looking for a relationship"), and I have had strong chemistry with some, yet I'm not exactly fending off the girls. ;)
I definitely share your concern on whether or not we're able to generalize these results. Since I wasn't sure what to say myself, I turned to the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science to a followup paper by Finkel and Eastwick called "Speed-Dating" (this article is actually the one that prompted the idea for this post).
The scientists actually claim speed-dating has some measure of external validity, citing "an... advantage of speed-dating procedures is that they exhibit stronger extrenal validity than do many other highly controlled procedures for studying romantic attraction" (p. 195). There's a great header called "Potential Limitations of Speed-Dating" that's definitely worth a read; the authors continue to suggest that external validity concerns are hardly specific to the speed-dating methodology in particular. I'm inclined to agree, but solely because speed-dating is more ecologically valid than laboratory methodology doesn't mean it's up to appropriate standards to generalize from.
I think you're absolutely right with your other points. What I wonder is whether or not actual generalized romantic desire (GRD) mirrored the perceived GRD, as this'd make a big difference. If I'm not interested in everyone but everyone thinks I am, for some reason (that personality attribute you mention?), how does that play out?
Hehe, I used to be "looking" a long while back. Then I realized that was a pretty lame admission. I'll take hurt chances if I can keep my pride, eh!?
Thanks for your wonderful comment, it really gets me thinking. Drop by again soon.
It's good to hear others have given that issue due consideration, and not unexpected. I was just a little disappointed that such an obvious thing wasn't mentioned in this study. Maybe I'm just sensitive after the lack of decent training we've been getting in class about how to write a top-notch paper.
I'll add Finkel and Eastwick's paper to my pile. Social and Personality Psychology next semester so it might come in handy.