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Dating is a game of supply and demand. The more attractive you are, the greater the supply. You get more likes on your photos, get more messages, and collect more matches. It even allows you to be picky .
If you are less attractive , your chances decrease and you are less wanted – the supply is smaller. Everyone knows how that works. But it is not as simple as it seems. Because not only your attractiveness plays a role, but also the male-female ratio in your region.
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Who is in the majority?
In areas where single men outnumber single women, it is the women who dictate how the dating game is played. Since men are in the majority, single women become scarce. For men, this leads to a lack of choice and more competition. Women raise the bar and do not settle for less.
Conversely, in a reverse scenario, this is also the case in areas where there is a surplus of single women – as is common in the big cities in the Randstad. There, women compete for the single men, which – according to experts – makes dating more sexualized.
As the examples show, the ratio of men to women plays a major role in dating. However, as a result of this imbalanced sex ratio, not only does the supply change, but also partner preferences, according to new research by 108 researchers who collected data in 45 countries.
Nearly 15,000 people (55% female) completed the survey, which asked them about their gender and their ideal partner. They were asked to indicate their partner preference based on five characteristics: kindness, intelligence, health, physical attractiveness and good financial prospects. These answers were then compared to data on gender ratios in each of the countries, including gender ratios at the city level. What did the researchers find?
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Men in the majority
In places where men are in the majority, men decrease their preferences for good financial prospects and physical attractiveness. In contrast, women increase their preferences for good financial prospects and physical attractiveness in places where they are in the minority. So while men in these areas decrease their demands, women increase theirs.
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Women in the majority
In areas where women are in the majority and men in the minority, the opposite happens. In places where more women live, women decrease their preference for good financial prospects and physical attractiveness. And to top it all off, men in turn increase their preference for good financial prospects and physical attractiveness.
What about kindness, intelligence, and health? Good question. The relationship between those traits in the gender ratios was not as strong as that of physical attractiveness and good financial prospects. Why this is the case is not clear from the study.
According to psychologist Cariota Batres, one of the researchers who worked on the study, it could be that these characteristics are more important for both men and women. She thinks that these preferences are not or hardly influenced by scarcity.
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