Predicting Romantic Interest during Early Relationship Development: A Preregistered Investigation using Machine Learning

There are massive literatures on initial romantic attraction and established, “official” relationships. But there is a gap in our knowledge about early relationship development: the interstitial stretch of time in which people experience rising and falling romantic interest for partners who have the potential to—but often do not—become sexual or dating partners. In the current study, 208 single participants reported on 1,065 potential romantic partners across 7,179 data points over seven months. In stage 1 of the analyses, we used machine learning (specifically, Random Forests) to extract estimates of the extent to which different classes of predictors (e.g., individual differences vs. target-specific constructs) accounted for participants’ romantic interest in these potential partners (12% vs. 36%, respectively). Also, the machine learning analyses offered little support for perceiver × target moderation accounts of compatibility: the meta-theoretical perspective that some types of perceivers are likely to experience greater romantic interest for some types of targets. In stage 2, we used traditional multilevel-modeling approaches to depict growth-curve analyses for each predictor retained by the machine learning models; robust (positive) main effects emerged for many variables, including sociosexuality, gender, the potential partner’s positive attributes (e.g., attractive, exciting), attachment features (e.g., proximity seeking, separation distress), and perceived interest. We also directly tested (and found no support for) ideal partner preference-matching effects on romantic interest, which is one popular perceiver × target moderation account of compatibility. We close by discussing the need for new models and perspectives to explain how people assess romantic compatibility.

Body and Gesture in Derek Walcott’s Theatre

Reflecting on Derek Walcott’s early relationship with movement, dance and ritual, this article sheds light on the centrality of embodied memory in Walcott’s work for the stage and reflects on the relationship between memory and materiality in his epistemology of performance. Walcott’s ideas shaped his approach to dramaturgy in the late 1950s and position his work in relation to global debates around materialism (Brecht) and ritualism (Grotowski) in the theatre. A discussion of two plays, Dream on Monkey Mountain and Pantomime, examines the use of gestural language in specific performances of each. Such an approach demonstrates that the importance of embodied memory, as reflected in the staging of these plays, relates to certain Afro-Caribbean belief systems, which have exerted much influence on Walcott’s work. The article also emphasizes how Walcott’s theatre functions as a decolonial praxis that fosters the emergence of empowered subjectivities and Africanist modes of humanness that challenge the cultural order of colonialism. Jason Allen-Paisant is a lecturer in Caribbean Poetics and Decolonial Thought at the University of Leeds, and Director of the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies. He is currently at work on the monograph Staging Black Futures in the Twenty-First Century.

Building a Spousal Relationship

As was the case with other politically significant unions, the early years of the marriage of Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d’Este were dominated by the expectation that the couple would quickly produce an heir. While this pressure was most acutely felt by Isabella, the lack of a son represented a significant source of worry for a ruler who sought to secure a dynastic legacy. This chapter explores the struggle of a newly married couple to develop trust and to become sexually comfortable with each other, a process that proved far from straightforward. Francesco was known for his ribald humour and frank sexuality, while Isabella married with little awareness of what to expect in relation to her duty to bear a son. By piecing together evidence relating to their early relationship, the chapter traces the emotional discomfort the marital partners experienced in the initial stage of their union, the lengths to which Isabella’s parents and members of her own household went to resolve them, and the public scrutiny to which the marchioness was subject in the lead up to the birth of her first child.

Heartbeats and the Arts: A Historical Connection

This article traces the historical relation of heartbeats, science and art. It begins with an outline of historical ideas and science concerning the heart and the arterial pulse that will give better understanding of the intimate relation and differences between both and how early studies of the heart led to the discovery of the pulse and to the early relationship between heartbeats and art. Secondly, it tracks through history the particular interest of artists in making the pulse visible. Devices linked to bodies serve as mediators in artworks that project body mechanisms beyond corporeal limits. The works discussed project heartbeats as metaphors of emotions and life in installations that involve multiple senses.