Strangers and couples discover intimacy in amazing video experiment

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015
(Shutterstock)
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Want to fall in love with anyone? In this viral video, six couples (some strangers, some married) were tasked with just one intimacy-generating exercise: staring into each other's eyes for four minutes straight. Check out their responses below.

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Created by the Rainn Wilson-founded YouTube channel SoulPancake, the video is a live test of a study by psychologist professor Arthur Aron, in which he famously reported to have made two strangers fall in love in a laboratory experiment designed to create "closeness."

In the study, Aron paired up complete strangers, and asked them to stare into each other's eye for four minutes, uninterrupted. Next, they asked each other 36 personal questions that Aron had assigned over a 45-minute period. Six months later, one of those pairs were married.

But SoulPancake deviates from the original instructions, instead including several pairs who are already pre-acquainted. However, the resulting rekindlement of intimacy is just as fascinating to behold, and perhaps far more genuine than that of complete strangers.

Some of their post-experiment responses:

"In 55 years of marriage, we've never really looked into each other's eyes like that. But I do look at your eyes sometimes because I'm checking your blood sugar."

"How wonderful it was to just sit here and look at my wife for a change, without discussing work, business and situations."

"When I look at you really closely, I realize how much I need you. And what you mean to me, because that's the truth. I couldn't imagine being with anybody else."

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