World's Largest Eye Contact Experiment going down at Lake Eola this weekend

In 1997, Dr. Arthur Aron and colleagues published a study outlining how he had induced closeness between sets of strangers by having them stare into each other’s eyes for four minutes and ask each other a set of 36 personal questions. Two of the subjects ended up getting married six months later. It’s a great how-we-met story, way better than having to explain Tinder to your grandkids 50 years from now. This weekend, you can get your chance to replicate those results for yourself – whether romantically or bromantically – by sitting across from a stranger at Lake Eola Park and staring into their eyes for a minute. It’s a local spinoff of a worldwide event coinciding with the U.N.’s International Week of Peace, organized locally by the Elar Institute. We can’t guarantee that you’ll hit it off with your randomly matched partner, but if it doesn’t work out, pull out your phone and start swiping right.

5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 | Lake Eola Park, Eola Drive and Washington Street | eyecontactexperiment.com | free