Do You Want a Higher Value in Dating?

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Registered: 05-13-2005
Do You Want a Higher Value in Dating?
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Sat, 06-28-2008 - 10:38am

Look at this list from Baumeister - it was mentioned in an online psychology psychology course from MIT and I happened across it by chance

From Personality and Social Psychology Review 2004, Vol 8, No 4, 339-363 by Professor Roy F Baumeister, Dept of Psychology, Univ of FL

The title of the article is Sexual Economics: Sex as Female Resource for Social Exchange in Heterosexual Interactions. The thesis is that women do offer sex as a resource and men offer valuable resources in exchange for it including money/stability, affection, companionship, domestic help, social status, other resources.

Preconditions of market exchange:
In general, men want sex more than women want sex
In general, men have resources women want
Women are free to make sexual decisions
The man and woman live in a culture in which information about others' sexual activities is known or hinted about so that each person knows the current market price

Individual factors that RAISE value:
Woman is attractive
Woman is in young adulthood
Woman wears sexy clothing
Other men also want the woman
Man has high sex drive
Woman has had few or no prior sexual partners or has the reputation of having few or no sex partners

Individual factors that LOWER value:
Woman's age is past young adulthood
Woman is unattractive
Other woman also want the man (competition)
Woman has high sex drive
Man has much higher status than the woman
Woman lacks alternate access to resources
Woman has had many prior sex partners or has the reputation of having many sex partners

Market factors that RAISE value:
Larger pool of men than women
Female collusion to restrict men's sexual access to women
Men have few opportunities for sexual satisfaction

Market factors that LOWER value:
Larger pool of women than men
Permissive sexual norms
Men have easy access to porn or prostitutes

The report is actually 26 pages long and very interesting - explaining the profound change in our society and courtship from birth control and free access to porn. But I thought it was interesting.

Here is the online course list - so you can hear the class (#14) - it is very funny:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-00Fall-2004/LectureNotes/index.htm

It is about sexual marketing!!

Interesting - but makes sense to me from all I have read and seen. (edited to add) I was thinking that it makes sense to be all you can be in the dating market, and present yourself as a valuable and discerning partner, so you can find a man whom you will respect for a long time and so you can be happy with the resources he brings. We can't all turn back the hands of time - but we can be a good catch in our own market!




Edited 6/28/2008 10:45 am ET by cl-west1745

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Avatar for eponine365
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Sat, 06-28-2008 - 10:44pm
Exactly... I think a little goes a long way. Feminine = sexy, and I don't do that very well. I'm trying though, just bought two new skirts! lol. But of course I buy a brown one, and a khaki cargo one lol.. I'm kinda boring!
"I never knew what real happiness was until I got married,
and by then, it was too late."

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