Let's Experiment!

Five aspects of the Experimentation Stage of Knapp's relationship model

This is the Experimentation stage!

After two people show an initial interest in each other the couple's main goal will be to get to know each other better! If sparks are flying the couple will ask more questions about common interests and they will try to determine if the relationship is beneficial to them. The information that comes out will determine if you want to continue the relationship or cut ties.

It's a date!

New Line Cinema / Via gifpeanutbutter.tumblr.com

During this time, you find out more about the person, finding common interests you have and you begin to evaluate the relationship. It’s the information seeking aspect of the stage.

Traditionally, if you met someone in person (through friends, at the grocery store, driving your buggy into town), you’d follow up that initial meeting with a date (going to a restaurant, going to the movies then dancing in the middle of the street on the walk home). Nowadays, in the age of social media, if you meet online or on an app like Tinder, you start experimenting by chatting on the app. You’re still finding out common interests, just the methods of doing so have changed. A study showed apps like Tinder have made meeting people a lot easier as well as finding out information on them .

Sooo they're cool, right?

ABC / Via popsugar.com

When one person is interested in someone else a common occurrence is to ask mutual friends or common acquaintances more about that person. Traditionally you would have to have a face-to-face conversation with the target to find out who the common acquaintances are but with the help of social media you can find that information out by doing a quick survey of their facebook page! Studies show From there you can locate the mutual friends and message them directly with any questions you may have about your new love interest.

Shhh it's a secret

GIFY / Via giphy.com

Secret tests are used for assessing the level of interest and commitment of a potential partner. During secret tests, an individual will ask indirect questions to gather information about their love interest. For example, you may mention that your mutual friend just got married and inquire about whether they would ever want to get married as well. By asking indirect questions, this can help one to learn specific information secretly without the other person knowing. Traditionally it was difficult to conduct secret tests because most of the information is personal and isolated so the only way you could get information was by asking a person directly. Studies show a lot of time the answers could be vague and untrue. Social media gives the public a tool to have access to other people’s personal lives. You can now learn if someone wants to get married by looking at the kind of pictures they post of the kind of statuses or tweets they publish on their page. For example, if a woman is retweeting picture of pretty wedding rings you can assume that she wants to get married.

The future may be bright

United Media / Via reddit.com

This aspect is about being able to seek interests where both partners have common interests in, such as going to the same events, food, lifestyle, family or a job. It is about being able to see if the other person is also beneficial to them as well. Seeing if the person holds you back in life or restricts you from proceeding in life. With this person, it is also important to know if this person and yourself have a good self-presentation of themselves, a good demographic or one that will help you improve your own self-presentation. Studies show that through social media, a person can look through a person's profile and see how their profile can be a good self presentation to oneself and traditionally, one would gather all their information through face to face interactions to see how that person will fit into their life and if they can see a future with them.

Is this the end?

HBO / Via giphy.com

Will it continue is deciding whether or not the person of interest is one to have a potential relationship with or to end the relationship with. From this aspect, there are many things to look for when deciding if you should continue contact with the love interest. You may want to continue the relationship if the person is beneficial to you or if there are many common interests. However, if the person is dull or has many attributes that you dislike, you may no longer be interested in getting to know them and the relationship will stop progressing - that is often the case in this aspect of experimentation (Knapp).