Why a Small Change in Gender Ratios Has a Large Effect | Hacker News Reader

Why a Small Change in Gender Ratios Has a Large Effect

marginalrevolution.com

25 pointsmhb6 comments

relatively small change in the sex ratio (m:w) from 50:50 to say 40:60 should make such a big difference

That would be a relatively very large change. Of course that would have massive implications for the dating pool. Small would be from 50:50 to 49.99:50.01.

The article claims that even a change from 50:50 to 48.7:51.3 (19 men, 20 women) would have a very large effect. But I doubt the marriage market is liquid enough for a change that small to have a large effect because I don't think it would even be noticed. I agree with you that a change to 40:60 is a large change. That's a change you can't help but notice in your dorm and your classes, so that's a change that is likely to affect your behavior.

I think the abstract game described by the article implies that one wouldn't directly see the change in the gender ratios, what one would see would a person who had become "desperate" and and began "underbidding". Once one person starts "underbidding", the effect can cascade as other feel pressure to match the "bids".

However, the big question is whether a dating site would be arena where that kind of dynamic would actually play out.

It's worth noting that in the present housing market, there's a also a mis-match between people looking to buy houses and available new houses. However, the banks and Real Estate dealers have managed hold back the flood-gates of desperate offers through various means - so market structure can put a damp on these ratio effects. I've evolutionary psychology theory that talks about the social pressure on women to not "sell themselves short" and this is another effort to control market structure to prevent the effects described in the article - but since Internet dating sites are a purely individual matter, they may be where ratio effects come into play.

I attended a certain technical school in the Northeast at a time when the undergraduate male:female ratio was at least 60:40, and I never noticed the men there making drastic changes in their behavior for the sake of attracting female classmates. I just went without a girlfriend for most of my time there, and the longest-term relationship I did have as an undergraduate was with a woman who was not a student.

One problem: humans, even in western societies, aren't strictly monogamous. Men and women both can, and not infrequently do, have more than one partner, even when married.

That's not a problem for this argument. Rather, this argument is one explanation - women accept the "male" model of having more sex as men gain more leverage in the relationship "market" through scarcity.

Of course, another explanation is the men and women have sex for "their own pleasure" and "their own reasons". That somewhat begs the question of what those reasons are. But that could OK.

Sorting out social, biological and "personal" motivations is complicated and interesting problem.

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