guyjantic has moved!<p>Story idea: science to make two people fall in love.</p><p>IDK if I'll ever write this under a name that can be connected to my IRL/scholarly identity, because it would technically be <a href="https://c.im/tags/erotica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>erotica</span></a> and I would prefer to keep anything like that separate, but I've been thinking about this for years:</p><p>Two people *want* to be in <a href="https://c.im/tags/love" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>love</span></a> with each other because they're a perfect match--basically soulmates--but not physically attracted to each other.</p><p>So they go full <a href="https://c.im/tags/science" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>science</span></a> nerd on this problem: Operation Get Attracted. There's a very awkward period where they admit they aren't physically attracted to each other (but feel/think so much of each other in other ways), then on with the program. Their goal is to boost <a href="https://c.im/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/attraction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>attraction</span></a> so those feelings fall in line with their non-sexual/non-romantic feelings, and with their intellectual appraisal of each other.</p><p>They get scholarly, trying things from group dynamics <a href="https://c.im/tags/research" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>research</span></a>, intergroup relations theories, social identity theory, sociobiology, and (lots of) classical and operant conditioning. Other fields, too, if I can think of them. They do conditioning trials, imaginal work, meditation, parasocial activities, drugs, hacking their social networks--anything that might make them truly fall for each other in the hubba-hubba realm. And of course they collect and analyze their own <a href="https://c.im/tags/data" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>data</span></a>.</p><p>I'm a <a href="https://c.im/tags/romantic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romantic</span></a> so I would write this so it works out for them, one way or another.</p><p>But not this week. I'm very busy.</p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/ideas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ideas</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/questionable" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>questionable</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/orisit" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>orisit</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/psychology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>psychology</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/research" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>research</span></a></p>