Mate Selection for Modernity

Quillette had an excellent article today that captured PPD in its essence. It was retweeted by Paul Graham (y-combinator founder).

https://quillette.com/2021/06/28/mate-selection-for-modernity/

Dating and the process of mate selection have changed. The rise of hook-up culture, proliferation of dating apps, and ever-increasing age of first marriage are evidence of this. This current situation can be summarized along four parameters:

1. Increasing female achievement.
2. Growing variability in male status and competence.
3. An evolutionary desire among females to marry up.
4. The globalization of the sexual marketplace and resultant collapse of local status hierarchies.

Together, these conditions have created pronounced imbalances in the modern sexual marketplace. Put plainly, an increasing cohort of successful women are chasing a shrinking number of high-value, commitment-averse men.

At a cursory level, much of this can be explained by sex ratios and partner availability. However, the underlying structure of modern mate selection is fundamentally mathematical. For us to truly understand the causes and consequences of the modern sexual marketplace, a bit of math is required.

....

A Euclidian integration algorithm incorporates mate preferences while capturing the full array of potential mates and their traits. Attraction to a mate is computed as the inverse distance between a person’s preference and each potential mate’s corresponding traits. In plain English, the model compares what you’re looking for in a mate with whether prospective mates possess these traits. The closer these two things are, the more a mate matches your preferences. Conroy-Beam and Buss’s mathematical model was as such:

1/ (sqrt (sum (1:n) (pn - tn)^2))

where n = the number of traits, p = a person’s preference value, and t = a mate’s trait value.

This mathematical model offers key insight into our unbalanced sexual marketplace. The number and weight of a woman’s mate preferences is negatively correlated with the number of eligible mates that are available to her. Thus, the distance of a prospective mate to a woman increases with each new preference she adds. Put simply, the more you demand, the less you receive.

More generally, there’s a disconnect between what women want and what is actually available to them. Whereas greater male attainment increases the number of romantic options a man has, greater female attainment reduces the number of options a woman has.

This imbalance in the sexual marketplace is not a good thing. A society teeming with lonely women and sexually frustrated men is one hurtling toward disaster. It is imperative that we, as a society, think carefully about solutions to this burgeoning crisis.