A pretty good economic analysis.
This "lemon market" phenomenon was first studied by George Akerlof in the used-car market, but his lesson is also true for dating, especially online. Say you're looking for a date on OkCupid. You know that the potential partners out there are of two types: good and bad. Everyone wants to find good dates -- and are wiling to lavish them with expensive dinners and whatnot -- and avoid bad ones. But there's a catch. Everyone in the market can pretend to be a good type -- say, by lying on their Internet dating profiles.
and thus,
There are good cars and there are lemons, and the prospect of getting a lemon drives down the price of used cars and pushes good cars out of the market.
Dating sucks.
5 comments:
Having now read the article I feel the need to respond more clearly.
What a load of shit!
i will not apologize on my blog for having opinions and prejudices. that is the entire point of a blog.
I've no problem with your opinions and prejudices - just try and back them up with a logical argument. Because that article you cited was devoid of and valid rationale (my opinion and prejudice) and just sounded like a geeky loser trying to justify his lack of success with women.
well, lack of success with women has created many a great thing. your boy woody allen wouldn't have his body of work without it, i suspect. nevertheless, the lemon market car theory is a logical argument. it describes why a car loses half it's value when it drives off the lot. i haven't heard it applied to internet dating, but i do think it describes facebook well since i believe many of the people who others want as friends either don't participate very much on facebook or don't use it all together, leaving mostly the lemons and thus devaluing the service more. and since facebook is just internet dating in disguise, i'm sure it applies to the real deal as well. but look, people still buy used cars and have good experiences and likewise, people who enjoy internet dating ought to keep enjoying it. just be aware you're getting the car for cheap BECAUSE of the higher likelihood of it being a lemon and you're getting the easy sex in the higher likelihood of it being with a psychopath.
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