Is love chemistry or is it just DNA?
Okay, now it’s getting interesting. A couple of months ago I posted a blog article about dr Helen Fisher‘s theory of four personality types of Builder, Negotiatior, Explorer and Director and how your love-life comes down to your personality type and the chemicals in your brain. (Those who want to know more about personality types might want to read my dating personality types overview of the four types or take a personality test at Match.com to find out which type they belong to.)
However, it turns out there’s a new way of finding that perfect match and it comes down to one of the most popular new sciences – gene technology.
As it turns out there’s a new form of genetic matching in town and it’s fast gaining popularity, turning on its head ‘conventional’ ideas about online dating.
I am talking about the Genepartner.com website, which seems to be causing a stir amongst those looking online to find that compatible partner. Apparently, what the Switzerland-based company does is ‘make love connections based on genes, or one particular family of genes known as human leukocyte antigens (HLAs)’.
The whole theory isn’t just some random idea by an enterprising science bod, designed to make them more money (although I believe that it WILL make someone very rich, as it’s just so new, so original and so audacious). It’s been carved up in the laboratories of Bern University in Switzerland and although my scientific background is too poor to make anything out of that fact alone, it certainly looks and sounds impressive (even if it does involve a group of students-guinea pigs going around, smelling each other’s t-shirts for a couple of weeks).
The idea behind it is, however, ancient. As it turns out, GenePartner is built on the idea that ‘opposites attract’, but behind the trivial idea is a very clever plan. One that is expected to be scooped up by various internet dating websites once they get their head around it. Apparently there has been already at least one dating site that is interested in genetic matching – Sense2Love.com plans to include genetic matching already this summer.
If you guys want to know more about your genetic matches before the British sites add it on their pages, you can always fork out $99 and order a GenePartner test. Basically it means a saliva sample that needs to be posted to the company. It will then take around two weeks for your GenePartner ID to be mailed back to you and you can then start using the GenePartner database.
The company hopes to make the process so smooth in the future that the singles might be able to tote their DNA profiles with them as they flit from one online dating site to the next.
The whole idea sounds crazy… and yet so genius! Read more here.
About the Author
Aet Suvari has been reviewing and writing about the world of online dating since 2008 and the launch of Online Dating Help. A stickler for promoting ethical practices within the UK dating industry she champions the sites that get it right while highlighting those holding it back. You can follow her on Google+
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