COLUMN: The Economics of Dating
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By Kristian Fors
With the start of another school year, many students are on the hunt for that special someone at Utah State University. Dating is a marketplace. When individuals look to date, they are engaging in trade and should realize that a knowledge of economics and biology will give them a greater understanding of the nuances of courtship. Hopefully this approach doesn’t take the fun out of dating, but it’s ignorant to disregard these crucial components of the subject.
It has often been said that dating is a line of job interviews prior to marriage. Potential partners will often engage is a practice known as moral hazard. Moral hazard is when one party takes advantage of any information asymmetry prior to making a deal. Moral hazard is frequently relevant to dating when individuals conceal information about themselves until after the contract of marriage has been solidified. This concealed information can prove costly and detrimental to a long term relationship and may even result in divorce. To ensure that an equitable and mutually beneficial relationship emerges, efforts should be made to attain as much information as possible prior to making that commitment. Possible strategies to mitigate the risk of moral hazard include personality tests, credit debt assessments and asking straightforward, direct questions.
There is a type of action in game theory known as strategic posturing. Strategic posturing is any behavior that puts you in a more advantageous situation to get what you want. A popular example of this behavior that most people are likely familiar with is playing “hard to get.” Individuals essentially own a monopoly on their presence. Like an actual monopoly, individuals often strategically withhold their “product” from the market in an attempt to create artificial scarcity and increase perceived value. Through both the cognizance and identification of strategic posturing, hopefully individuals will be better able to look at a given situation with clarity and greater foresight.
In our primate evolutionary ancestors, females were indiscriminate mates. However, as evolution progressed, females became increasingly selective. The issue of mate selection is incredibly difficult, especially when there are so many options. Our smart female primal ancestors decided they would let the males fight it out and mate with those males who rose to the top. In short, primate mating evolved to become based on a hierarchy of competence. So when all is said and done, who ends up dating who?
A dominance hierarchy is a social structure that ranks an individual’s position relative to those around them. It is based on a culmination of traits including attractiveness, competence, income, social status, confidence, and intelligence. Dominance hierarchy equates to a scientific version of the colloquial “league system.” Research has drawn some conclusions about the nature of dominance hierarchies in relation to the sexual selection market. According to a study entitled Age and gender differences in mate selection criteria for various involvement levels (Buunk, Dijkstra, Fetchenhauer, and Kenrick), women tend to date across and up dominance hierarchies, and men tend to date across and down dominance hierarchies. This is an evolutionary phenomenon not an anthropological one; similar studies have indicated that this pattern emerges across different cultures and continents. This means that men are much more likely to “settle” so to speak.
It is important to note, however, that the happiest relationships tend to be those where both partners are at similar levels on the dominance hierarchy. If one partner is higher than the other, it will result in feelings of insecurity and inadequacy for the partner lower on the hierarchy. Likewise, the partner higher on the hierarchy might feel regret or remorse if they feel like they have settled. This results in an inherent instability. Therefore, it is best to form equitable relationships.
The aforementioned study also isolated the exact variables that each sex considers more attractive or valuable. The research states in it’s abstract: “Consistent with an evolutionary perspective, men preferred mates who were higher in physical attractiveness than themselves, whereas women preferred mates who were higher in income, education, self–confidence, intelligence, dominance, and social position than themselves.” This empirical data stands to back up the common claim that guys care more about physical attractiveness than women do. This is not to say that are not anomalies in love, but when sexual selection is observed at a group level, these are the determining factors of success.
Signals are a key factor in the evolutionary reproductive landscape. It’s the reason that male peacocks have elegant tails. Humans use signals to increase chances of reproduction as well, in fact I’m convinced that social media is primarily used by young adults in this capacity. In Utah, it appears that among Mormons being a return missionary is an incredibly important signal. Because signals are so important, it’s extremely important to self diagnose the signals that you send across. For instance, seeming too eager on a date will signal that you’re desperate and potentially low value even if that’s not the case. This is called adverse selection. I was at a social event and one of the young men that was there made a comment about how he was popular with girls. A girl that overheard his comment remarked that he isn’t going to get any girls if he keeps texting the green chat bubbles that result from using an Android phone. It is entirely possible that phone choice is a signal in the sexual selection environment. According to a study conducted by one dating site, OKCupid.com, iPhone users have more sexual partners on average than those who use Android. A possible explanation to this might be the stereotypes associated with the two phone categories. It is likely that iPhones are subconsciously connected with images of financial security and youth while Android is connected with images of nerdiness or “incels.” In fact, according to research by NBER, economists could correctly deduce 69% of the time that an individual was “high-income” purely if they owned an iPhone.
For girls that want a long term relationship, one signal in particular is crucial. According to Dr. Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist and former professor at Evergreen State College, in a very biological sense there is a clear distinction between attraction derived from passion or “hotness” and beauty. These two different stimuli activate different reactions within males. Our primal male ancestors generally had two different predominant reproductive strategies that they engaged in. One strategy was based off probability; the strategy was to interact with as many partners as possible and move on from partner to partner without stopping to take care of any potential children. The second strategy was to create a long term relationship where the male would also participate in care taking for the child’s welfare. Unfortunately, the traits typically associated with hotness activate the first reproductive framework within male’s brains. Likewise, the traits associated with beauty active the monogamous reproductive framework. This is troubling because it is often the case that women that seek male attention will seek to portray themselves as “hot.” While it seems illogical, this strategy is generally counter-productive towards a long term relationship.
It is ignorant to not acknowledge that sexual selection is predominantly driven by the desires to both reproduce and successfully raise children. This results in age becoming a huge factor in the dating marketplace. In their younger years, females have almost an “absolute advantage” in sexual selection. They have a high level of choice in who they date. However, as females approach an age where reproductive issues might occur, the dichotomy shifts and men develop the absolute advantage. For those that are serious about finding a life long partner and want to optimize their choice, age should be taken into account.
Dating and sexual selection is incredibly important and who you decide to marry or raise children with will inevitably impact your life and the lives of your offspring. Because of its long term of effects, dating is something that you absolutely need to get right. With the knowledge of evolutionary biology and economics in your hands, hopefully you’ll be able to see through false signals, incongruities, and malicious strategies. We all want optimal relationships in this life, and at least for the objective component of it, you are now equipped with the proper framework to pursue one.
Kristian Fors is a student at Utah State University majoring in Finance and Economics and is an opinion columnist for the Utah Statesman. He can be reached at krfors@gmail.com.