Most of us, when asked, think we have a pretty good idea of what we like. We know what we value in a mate and look for that. Unfortunately for our peace of mind, science is telling us that we really don’t know what we are attracted to.
I’ve been taking an interesting class on Irrational Behavior, taught by behavioral economist Dan Ariely at Duke University. (Yes, this is what I do for fun) While this field applies psychology to economics, it is surprisingly applicable to the dating world.
We bloggers have a tendency to refer to dating in economic terms anyway; witness terms like “dating marketplace” and “sexual market value.” Romantic, innit? So, it wasn’t altogether surprising to find online dating addressed in the first week of the course. Guest professor Eli Finkel at Northwestern University provided a quick overview of some of the research he has done in this area. He and his colleague, Paul Eastwick at the University of Texas have conducted extensive research to answer two questions.
The first is: are there sex differences in what people are looking for?
The second is: do we have accurate insight into what leads to romantic attraction?
