Love Is Blind: Three psychological reasons contestants can fall in love so quickly on hit Netflix show

Communication plays a key part in forming a relationship

How Love Is Blind contestants can fall in love so quickly (Netflix)

Since it premiered earlier this month, Netflix’s new dating reality show Love Is Blind has had viewers intrigued.

The show’s premise, described as a “social experiment,” relies on the idea that falling in love with just someone’s personality is possible.

To test the theory, the streaming giant placed 30 men and women in their 20s and 30s in self-contained pods, where they then attempted to form relationships without ever seeing each other.

Only when the couples on the show decide to get engaged are they finally able to lay eyes on one another - at which point they take a trip to Mexico together and marry within a month.

To the surprise of viewers, the dating method proved to be successful, in that the 10-episode series ended with multiple engagements and a few weddings.

Why the experiment worked, however, may have more to do with science than actual love.

According to research, these are three psychological reasons that may explain why the Love Is Blind contestants were able to fall in love so quickly.

Communication plays a huge part in forming a connection

In a 2013 study published in the American Journal of Sociology about speed-dating, researchers found that communication is actually more important than looks in forming a connection.

“With each additional minute of communication, we find that speech gains in salience and effect,” the researchers wrote, after analysing conversations of more than 900 heterosexual couples during speed-dating encounters.

Not being able to see one another can lead to more natural conversation

In a 1973 study published in Psychology Today titled “Deviance In The Dark,” researchers observed and compared conversations between strangers in well-lit rooms and in pitch-black rooms.

According to the results, those in the dark room were more open with one another and formed relationships easier than those who met in the well-lit room.

“The results of these experiments suggested to us that when freed from normative constraints, people, at least people between the ages of 18 and 25, develop very immediate and close relations,” the researchers wrote, adding: “There is liberation in anonymity.”

The setup encourages the likelihood of contestants experiencing the theory of “object relations”

According to Judith Siegel, a professor at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, who discussed the theory of object relations to Vice, the theory can explain why the contestants felt they knew each other so well after such a short time.

The theory focuses on the idea that an aspect of one’s personality can remind you of someone from your past.

“You haven’t known them your whole life, but you feel like you have because you’ve made a connection with someone in your past that you may have loved, or still love in some way, and you see those qualities in this person,” Siegel told the outlet. “So you make this rapid shift [and] bestow upon them even more qualities than you can possibly find out about in a short period of time.”