The Woman Who Made Online Dating Into a 'Science'

The anthropologist and famed love expert Helen Fisher seemed ready to dash into oncoming traffic. We were on a sidewalk in Manhattan, opposite the American Museum of Natural History, and nowhere near a safe place to cross the street. She wanted me to stare down the yellow cabs and charge off the curb, though she knew I wouldn't do it: I'd recently taken the personality questionnaire she wrote 17 years ago for a dating website, which produced the insight that I am a cautious, conventional rule follower. She, however, is an "explorer"--she has visited 111 countries, including North Korea--but also, being high in estrogen, a "negotiator" who will use the crosswalk for my benefit. "I am horribly empathetic," she told me. I look into baby carriages and worry about their future with love." This is how Fisher, the 77-year-old chief scientific adviser for Match.com and one of the best-known, most-often-quoted experts on romance and "mate choice," understands life: Personality is a cocktail of ...