Spread Dating Is The Productive Approach To Finding Your Perfect Match
As the weather warms up and spring sets in, singletons are ready for renewal, given all the dating potentials blossoming around them. True, spring is the season that we slowly emerge from the hibernation era of the winter months, and the dating scene becomes vibrantly alive. And there is a scientific reason behind it too.
According to Dr. Helen Fischer, professor of neuroscience at Rutger's University, spring is the season of novelty — nature bursting with colors and aromas, flowers blooming, birds chirping, sunkissed afternoons, and longer days. As the world around us finally becomes alive following the drub and gloomy winter months, our brains react to this explosion of novelty by triggering dopamine release (via MPR News). And dopamine release — the happiness chemical — is the real culprit behind our heightened flirty mood and romantic inclinations.
Spring has sprung, and people are ready to dip back into the dating pool. As more light hits our retina, our pineal gland releases less melatonin than in the darker months — thus making us less drowsy and more willing to go outside and meet our perfect match. So, given that we are in THE season of finding our perfect match, how exactly do we do it? The new dernier cri trend seems to be spread dating, and many singletons welcome this new trend and ditch the winter "cuffing." So, how does spread dating work?
Spread Dating - the basics
The basic premise behind spread dating is this: if you want to increase your chances of finding your perfect match, you should date as many people as possible. The goal is to assess more potential candidates in your perfect match quest.
Emma Harton, a relationship expert at Seeking dating website, tells Yahoo! Life that "Spread dating is a seasonal dating trend in which singletons ditch their winter cuffing partners, as they look to maximize opportunities by going on multiple dates to raise their odds of landing an elite, well-established and attractive partner, instead of settling ... It's a tactical approach to dating which involves proactive attempts to land several dates in a relatively short space of time, so daters have options to choose from when it comes to finding the 'best' partner."
In other words, instead of investing several months in a single relationship and trying to see if it finally works out, you spend more time dating and exploring your options before you settle down with that special someone. However, since there are multiple people involved in this new trend, and you might be simultaneously dating a couple of potential candidates, there are some ethical underlying guidelines you need to be aware of.
The ethics of spread dating
Do you find the idea of exploring your options and putting future partners to the test to align with your spring goals? Perfect! However, you should bear in mind that this does not automatically imply that all singletons will hop on the spread dating wagon, and not everyone you swipe right will share your views on the matter.
To be ethically correct towards your dating partner, you should be honest from the very beginning. According to Hathorn, "You don't necessarily need to go into detail about who else you are seeing but being honest and upfront about the fact that you are dating when asked is key" (per Yahoo! Life). You should not pretend to be looking for a long-term relationship, at least not before you have tried out dating for a while to see where it takes you. If things don't seem to work out after a couple of dates, you need to come clean to the other party involved.
This is especially true if the other person seems more vested in the relationship than you are. If you feel that this is not what you are looking for, then call it quits and amicably part ways and avoid being a dating prowler. However, even if you are having loads of fun and enjoy the other person's company — just not in a romantic way — you should not keep their hopes up by continuing it. Honest, open communication ensures that you approach the dating scene with maturity and respect, ensuring that nobody's feelings get hurt or precious time wasted.