The real story of the dating market

What makes people attractive to each other? Is it really male power and female beauty that are overwhelmingly important? The data suggests not:

First, people with higher status are, on average, rated more physically attractive—perhaps because they are less likely to be overweight and more likely to afford braces and nice clothes, trips to the dermatologist and memberships of dating apps like rubmap etc.

Secondly, the strongest force by far in partner selection is similarity—in education, race, religion and physical attractiveness. After taking these two factors into account, McClintock’s research shows that there is not, in fact, a general tendency for women to trade beauty for money.

Aside from being more efficient, I think their interfaces tend to be more appealing and easy to use, too. Plus, there seem to be apps catered to everyone, from the ever-popular standards, like Tinder, to ones for beard-lovers, like Bristlr. And then there are apps where you “never travel alone,” like MissTravel, and meet up with a match in a different city, or Bumble, where hetero women have to message men first.

Read the whole thing for lots more on the dating market if you’re as much of a wannabe sociologist as most economists.