After learning in one of my psychology classes about laws of attraction and relationships I started to see this as a game itself. The professor made a comparison between the time left before a bar closed ("closing time") and the likelihood to go home with someone. She stated that as the time decreased and the night started to wind down, people at the bar began to find people more attractive and were more willing to go home with them. When first hearing this idea I laughed because I didn't really believe that this theory was true, our professor even challenged us to see what happened next time we went out and a party or bar was ending.
The next weekend I observed as the night started to wind down and saw that people I would never expect together started to couple off! This made me laugh because just like in many games as time runs out players become desperate to get more points, this happens to college kids too. As time runs out in a night people become more desperate to go home with someone and the game begins to find someone so that this "player" does not go home alone. Maybe people blame it just on alcohol for their mistakes from the night before, but psychological studies have shown that this is not the case most times. Next time you go out think about how many times you have done this or if you haven't done this watch your friends scramble when it is last call, I promise you'll have a great laugh out of this!
I had never noticed this phenomenon before reading this post, but when thinking about relationships as a game it makes total sense. One thing I have definitely noticed from watching and playing sports is that the intensity usually really increases towards the end, especially if the score is close. For example, this seems to happen a lot in football. At the beginning of the game, when there is much more time available, the offense usually takes a more cautious approach. However, at the end of the game, both sides suddenly start rushing down the field. I have seen this happen often in other sports too, like hockey and basketball. With the end of the game the pressure is on and there's a much greater sense of urgency with every play. A good non-sport example would be pictionary. If the timer is about to run out and the drawing still hasn't been guessed correctly, everyone will start yelling just about anything that comes into their heads. I find it very funny that this same concept can be applied to college parties too.
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