Hey guys--I had an interesting conversation with a few guys and wanted to get the board's wisdom. A friend showed me the following article w/ a study from guys at MIT and UChicago: http://bigthink.com/dollars-and-sex/do-w...-in-a-mate
Cliff notes
-When you use traditional methods like surveys (even if anonymous) that ask men and women what is most important to them when it comes to relationships we don't seem to get very accurate results. The problem with this approach is that people either lack self-awareness or tend to not to be very honest in their answers.
-Taking an econ perspective, the MIT and UChicago guys used actual empirical data from online dating sites to determine how important attractiveness/wealth are to each sex when looking for a mate.
-For men, there is no amount of income that a woman can earn if she is in the bottom 10% of looks to make her more appealing than a woman in the top 10%.
-For women though, if the man in the bottom ten percent in terms of looks earns more than $248,500, they will prefer him over the man in the top 10% of looks earning $60,000.
NOTE: I really don't want to get into a discussion about whether or not you need money to get women--I think most everyone would agree everything being equal, money is at least a factor and being rich helps, but not having money can be overcome.
From your experience, when does money start becoming an important factor for women in dating?
My experience: For most of the girls I knew in high school/college: it seemed to be a very small factor in attraction. My main theory is that the biggest attractor for women is "status" which I'd define as something like (your rep in your social circle + confidence + money). Note, especially, during high school/college, I think looks are a fairly important factor but I think it contributes heavily to both your place in your social circle and your confidence (so it is covered in the equation). I don't think money played much of a role in college because, for the most part, everyone seemed to be on the same level so to speak. In other words, few people could distinguish themselves on this basis and physiologically I think most girls weren't necessarily as attracted to "providers" as they might be as they age.
Post college (I'm 25), I've personally started noticing girls caring a lot more about money/what your job is. I'm not sure that its the most important "factor" in my equation above but its getting closer to be equal with the other two. I think this is for the obvious biological reasons that women start to think more about settling down around this age and are looking for "providers". My suspicion is that post 25-27, money become even more important of a factor in "game", if not the most important factor.
What say you?
Cliff notes
-When you use traditional methods like surveys (even if anonymous) that ask men and women what is most important to them when it comes to relationships we don't seem to get very accurate results. The problem with this approach is that people either lack self-awareness or tend to not to be very honest in their answers.
-Taking an econ perspective, the MIT and UChicago guys used actual empirical data from online dating sites to determine how important attractiveness/wealth are to each sex when looking for a mate.
-For men, there is no amount of income that a woman can earn if she is in the bottom 10% of looks to make her more appealing than a woman in the top 10%.
-For women though, if the man in the bottom ten percent in terms of looks earns more than $248,500, they will prefer him over the man in the top 10% of looks earning $60,000.
NOTE: I really don't want to get into a discussion about whether or not you need money to get women--I think most everyone would agree everything being equal, money is at least a factor and being rich helps, but not having money can be overcome.
From your experience, when does money start becoming an important factor for women in dating?
My experience: For most of the girls I knew in high school/college: it seemed to be a very small factor in attraction. My main theory is that the biggest attractor for women is "status" which I'd define as something like (your rep in your social circle + confidence + money). Note, especially, during high school/college, I think looks are a fairly important factor but I think it contributes heavily to both your place in your social circle and your confidence (so it is covered in the equation). I don't think money played much of a role in college because, for the most part, everyone seemed to be on the same level so to speak. In other words, few people could distinguish themselves on this basis and physiologically I think most girls weren't necessarily as attracted to "providers" as they might be as they age.
Post college (I'm 25), I've personally started noticing girls caring a lot more about money/what your job is. I'm not sure that its the most important "factor" in my equation above but its getting closer to be equal with the other two. I think this is for the obvious biological reasons that women start to think more about settling down around this age and are looking for "providers". My suspicion is that post 25-27, money become even more important of a factor in "game", if not the most important factor.
What say you?