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December 7, 2007
Q. When it comes to romance, what's your “marketplace” value? What might a crassly unsentimental economist say?
A. Though it differs somewhat from culture to culture, there is surprising overlap in what we all look for in lovers — large numbers of us prefer someone who is kind, compassionate, honest, loyal, healthy, intelligent, emotionally stable and physically attractive, says Robert Frank in “The Economic Naturalist.” Women generally admit to being attracted to men who are financially successful and lately men too have been mentioning this one more in surveys. If you add up your 1-10 ratings for all these characteristics and then average them, this would be your “desirability index,” and obviously the higher the better. Now an “assortative mating” pattern develops in which 10s pair with other 10s, 9s with other 9s, etc., providing at least a rough guide to the dating/mating scene.
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