A while back, Dan Dare brought an amazing video to my attention, and asked what it shows. This was my response:
Posted by David Boxenhorn at December 29, 2004 10:26 PMIt shows,
1. A picture's worth 1,000 words.
2. It was not about beauty (as was said in the video), it was the same girl in each picture!!! It was about what she communicated through body language, clothes, etc.
3. What it is telling us is that guys want to go out with the "girl next door" (at least when she's beautiful), i.e. they like family values! (I do too.)
4. Alternatively, it shows marginal rather than absolute demand, i.e. that sexpots are common, and family-oriented women are not. I don't think this is true, but it could reflect men's perception of the truth.
My son (aged 28) says that the reason the sexpot didn't get many responses is that a lot of men think they have no chance with her, or even don't believe the picture is genuine (i.e. if she's so gorgeous, why does she need to use Internet dating).
Posted by: ilana at December 30, 2004 11:40 AM PermalinkI think that the sexpot photo just wasn't as attractive as the other photo. You'd need quite a few different women to control for variation in photo quality.
Posted by: gc at December 31, 2004 10:50 AM PermalinkGC: Nice to have you come and visit!
Ilana and GC: I don't know. I don't think either explains the HUGE preference we see.
But of course, this isn't a scientific study.
Posted by: David Boxenhorn at December 31, 2004 11:58 AM Permalink