The Fast Friends Procedure worked only if participants took turns asking each other questions. In a separate experiment, each participant was instructed to answer all thirty-six questions in a row while their partner listened, and then trade places. Volunteers said the experience was awkward and boring. No one felt close afterward. But when the Arons, in their experiment, told people to go back and forth and “share your answer with your partner, then let him or her share their answer to the same question with you,” people started to bond. “Reciprocity is critical,” Arthur Aron told me. “It’s
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