Fieldwork Complete: The Mashhad Social Approach Study

Alongside the language model programme, a very different dataset was collected this summer. The Mashhad Social Approach Study is a self-designed survey of 1,000 young adults in Mashhad, answering a 30-item questionnaire about interest, attraction, and what actually happens next.

The study asks a simple question with an uncomfortable answer: when someone is interested in another person, what decides whether they approach? Fear of rejection, self-perceived attractiveness, religiosity, daily habits, and digital behaviour are all measured, and the analysis combines statistical testing with machine learning to map how these factors interact, and how the patterns differ by gender.

Fieldwork is complete and the dataset is in analysis. The study is a reminder that the questions behind Machine Psychology, how minds hesitate, rationalise, and act, are human questions first.