The Metropolis blog

Researchers hate relying on surveys. They assume that people will lie, give the socially acceptable answer, or, in the case of hypothetical questions, just make something up. So researchers prefer to rely on  revealed preferences , i.e. what people actually  do rather than what they say . Some of this data can be found in historical records, but occasionally researchers get to run actual experiments. And when it comes to human attraction, their preferred experiment is  speed dating , where a bunch of men and women chat to each other for a few minutes, mark their card yes or no , then move on to the next person. Looks matter In the paper  HurryDate: Mate preferences in action  researchers analysed the results of commercial speed dating events and found that Men were attracted to women based on weight and age. Women were attracted to men based on looks, height, and age. They also found that men who were in good shape with a high income were the pickiest, while t...

You may have noticed that some women are more popular than others. Way more popular. Demand for them greatly exceeds their supply. Fortunately homo sapiens  has evolved a way to resolve this imbalance without men evolving antlers and headbutting each other to compete for their affections. It's the fear of rejection . Feedback is a gift Social rejection hurts. It activates the same part of the brain as physical pain, and our brain learns to avoid things that hurt. This avoidance manifests itself as fear, ranging from unease to full-on terror. The result is that, in real life, most men will only approach women that they both find attractive and  who aren't likely to reject them. They won't approach women who are too  attractive because they are, literally, scared of them. This works well from a woman's perspective. She's only approached by a handful of men, most of whom have a chance of being suitable. (OK, some of the men are really drunk, and others are working fro...

Historically, economists have assumed that giving consumers more choice is a good thing. With more options, the thinking goes, consumers are more likely to find something that makes them happy. Which improves the chances they'll make a purchase. At least, that was the theory. The Jam Study In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper ran an experiment. They set out a display table in a food market with 24 varieties of gourmet jam and counted how many people sampled the jam, and how many made a purchase. And on another day they did the same thing, but with only six varieties of jam. As expected, the table with 24 jams was more popular with passers-by, with more people trying samples. But when it came to actually making a purchase, people were ten times more likely to buy from the six varieties than they were from the 24. That came as a huge surprise. Keep it simple There is still debate as to  why  people behaved the way they did. Some even argue that the whole study i...