We’re raised to believe that we’re all looking for “the one” — our perfect match, the milk to our cookies, the peanut butter to our jelly. But economists Michèle Belot and Marco Francesconi aren’t so sure that we’re truly that idealistic: in a study of 3600 speed daters, Belot and Francesconi found that, rather than holding to an unwavering ideal, humans are far more likely to adjust their standards based on the pool of available daters.
Sure, you might like brown eyes, but if you find yourself surrounded by blue eyed folks, you might sacrifice that ideal for the chance to get some booty. Romantic? Maybe not — but it seems like a pretty spot on description of human dating behavior. We all say we’re looking for our one-in-six-billion perfect match, but more often than not we’re willing to settle for the one-in-one-thousand who’s good enough for now.
Of course, at the same time, buying into this study means accepting the premise that speed daters can be considered a representative sample of the population — so, uh, keep that in mind as well.
[Photo by tomriley]
-
What is Boinkology?
Insightful analysis of sex, relationships, dating - and everything in between.
-
Most Discussed:
The Ladies Of Liberty City
Does The World Need More Porn For Straight Women?
Gentlemen Prefer A Size 12
Attention WalMart Shoppers, Masturbation Is Not Allowed On the Premises
The Case Of Facials Vs. Butt Sex
What's The Least Sexy Word For Penis?
Woman Has A Baby With Her Own Father
Contest: Bi Any Other Name
Girls With Tattoos = Guaranteed Butt Sex?
Cleanshaven Men Get More Play
RSS
Comments
Many moons ago, someone once reminded me that most guys only date a few women before they get married. Probably less than a dozen on average. And while one way to look at that is that most people don’t look hard enough for the right mate, I think it also shows that the definition of “the one” or “true love” is pretty malleable.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:16 pmooo – What would really be interesting is to recreate this study as an experiment, reflective of Festinger and Carlsmith’s classic cognitive dissonance study:
Have the speed dates rigged so that all the men are stereotypically undatable in some way (say, educated), then send a bunch of women in. Have them fill out an exit survey in which they rate the importance of things like education in a mate, and compare findings to a control group.
Ideally, women would adjust not only their behaviors (as the study measured), but also their values. Plus, the findings should differ depending on how expensive the speed dating event was.
Incidentally, the same theory would predict that people will give more favorable reviews of a date if it cost the a lot of money.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:19 pmummm…undatable = UNeducated not educated. DOH!
January 21st, 2008 at 2:20 pmI think now is the right time for an “antiquing” post…
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 amLeave a reply :