So we often here talk about SMP and RMP and market forces and I'd like to have a discussion on how applicable economic theories in general are to the dating world.

Yesterday, Anarchkitty opined:

What this isn't intended to do is actually apply to reality as an explanation or model in any useful way...it doesn't apply directly to the real world because so many variables are being ignored for the purposes of theory. This is fine, it's a basic theory meant to be a starting point for academic discussion and study. No economist worth their degree would ever try to assert that this is anything else.

https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21692926-find-true-love-it-helps-understand-economic-principles-underpinning

http://blogs.cornell.edu/info4220/2015/03/10/how-close-is-tinder-to-a-stable-marriage-problem-2/

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/12/01/marriage-pact-pairs-students-off-using-nobel-prize-algorithm/

So she is clearly wrong misguided. Economists love to directly apply their theories to the real world. I argue that economic theories are not only a starting point for academic discussion and study but applicable to life in a very useful way. So I'd like to run through a few economic theories applicable to dating life.

  1. Market thickness:

The probably of matches within a thin market are significantly lower than those in a thick market. Basically, if you increase the pool size, it follows that more will be suited—if not perfectly suited—to person seeking a mate.

Strategy wrt market thickness: move to a city.

  1. Adverse Selection:

This is all about the buyer having more information than the seller. In insurance, this is when a smoker or an obese person is more likely to buy insurance or advocate for universal health coverage because that person will get more value than what they pay in, raising rates or taxes for everyone else. In dating this appears as those who feel incapable of meeting a partner (in person, or even on a free dating website) for whatever reason more likely to pay a monthly fee, increasing the ratio of unattractive individuals (low value men men, single-moms etc...). The available pool of singles in your dating service will scare away all the good ones.

Strategy to combat adverse selection: decide carefully what to disclose to potential partners and beware of hidden red flags in potential mates.

  1. Signaling:

This is all about signalling your value as a brand. You also have to convey them credibly and quickly. When you’re applying for a job, you attempt to signal your worth to a company with education and previous work credentials, as well as by showing them your best stuff in an interview.

  1. Search theory:

Search theory specifically seeks the optimal strategy for those choosing from various opportunities, assuming that there is a cost related to indecision. In other words, search theory attempts to find the optimal balance between the cost of a delayed decision and the value of trying again. The desirability of a particular product or occupation is dependent on the perceived value of the alternatives available minus the undesirability of the hunt to find them.

Strategy: Be cautious of being too picky. You need to search long enough that you understand the distribution of offers but once you feel like you know what’s out there, try to be realistic.

  1. Supply-demand

Pretty self-explanatory.

Q4All: Are economic theories applicable to dating and do they provide a good basis for sexual strategy?

From my understanding, TRP relies on economic market theories to increase attraction to the largest pool of women who are most likely to sleep with them, while TBP types (like kitty) often say:

... strips away all of the inconvenient variables of reality, like varying individual tastes and preferences, social pressures, geography, biology, and either ignores them or folds them in under the vague heading of "preferred mate", and consciously ignores the population for whom the two base assumptions don't apply.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle, however I think TRP is closer to that truth than kitty's comments suggesting vast individual tastes and preferences. Something to think about.

General discussion on economic market theories and dating.

automod.....