Preface

Warning: this book is not recommended for any woman with a fear of heights.

Allow me to explain:

If you ever happen to find yourself crossing the Capilano River in North Vancouver, Canada, you’ll have two bridges to choose from:

The first is definitely not for the faint of heart: A mere five feet wide and 450 feet long, the Capilano Canyon Suspension Bridge is constructed solely of plank and cable and sways perilously in the wind some 250 feet above the turbulent rocky tides—right out of a scene from Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Your other choice? A solidly built anchored bridge that sits a mere ten feet above sea level.

In 1974, two well-known psychologists, Arthur Aron and Donald Dutton, used these bridges as the focus of an ingenious experiment—one that sought to explore the mysterious nature of sexual attraction. Informally dubbed the Shaky Bridge Study, I like to refer to it as the If He So Desired Test.

The two-part experiment went something like this:

On Day One, whenever an unaccompanied man ventured across the shaky bridge, he would find himself stopped midway by a beautiful young woman.

She would introduce herself as a psychology researcher and then proceed to ask if he would mind participating in a brief survey.

On Day Two, the identical routine would be conducted by the same woman on the sturdy bridge.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But there was a little twist: When each of the men completed the survey, the young woman would hand him her phone number and tell him that he was free to call her later that evening for the results . . . if he so desired.