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How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

selonomics.com

41–50 of 76 posts

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#41
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a left wing source (which are regarded as more reputable on HN [see edit]) reporting a study from the University of Wales, specifically: > A 2010 study from the University of Wales Institute found that men pictured with a Silver Bentley Continental GT were perceived as way more attractive than those pictures with a Red Ford Fiesta ST. What is your issue with The Independent and/or The University of Wales? [edit]…

The issue with the independent as a source is that it is obviously designed to be consumed as entertainment rather than a serious look at the topic. You can cherry-pick studies that show something entertaining, but that doesn't tell you much about the current scientific consensus. It's like how news loves to report that popular indulgences protect against cancer (wine, chocolate, coffee, whatever) Are you planning on…

> Are you planning on starting to wear red and eat a lot of garlic in order to attract more women?

Yes, I do wear subtly eye catching clothing and it does affect the amount of sexual attention I recieve from both men and women. You genuinely haven't heard of this before?

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#42
post #9
post #5

"We don’t have to assume very much to see this play out in the real world, only that men prefer young women and women prefer high status men." Author puts on his MRA hat to make a few assertions, runs a simulation, and uses that assumption to conclude that women will get more dates with high-status men with technology.

There is evidence from OKCupid etc (and, y'know, the real world) that the two assertions you quoted are true, broadly speaking. What has this got to do with "putting on his MRA hat"? Does this invalidate the assertions somehow?

> What has this got to do with "putting on his MRA hat"?

I'd say it's more a mark of red pill than MRA (although to most people outside the related subcultures, that's probably a distinction without a difference). Basically, the red pill narrative centers on people exploiting their own "sexual market value", with male SMV being determined by wealth and social status and female SMV being determined by youth and sexual inexperience. In this narrative, the most desirable women spend their peak-SMV years "riding the alpha cock carousel" and are "used up" by multiple high-SMV ("alpha") men, then cynically seek out lower-SMV ("beta") men for financial support after they've squandered their SMV, especially if they have children. This is summarized with the catchphrase "alpha fux, beta bux". Things like individual preferences and romantic compatibility don't exist in this model.

This is also behind the modern use of "cuck" as an insult in some subcultures: it's shorthand for describing the beta male in this scenario who is exploited to raise another man's children, and by extension anyone who is perceived as not being appropriately selfish.

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#43

"Hypergamy doesn’t necessarily guarantee an inequality in actual sexual encounters..." I'm not sure what he means by inequality in sexual encounters. Every time a man gets a new partner, a woman does as well. The average number of encounters is the same for both sexes so long as the number of men and women is equal(ish).

The median might be significantly different though.

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#44
post #33
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, in order to paint a picture, one must draw the odd brush stroke. I'm a privacy-conscious, non-car owning urbanite programmer, but I accept and am comfortable with that most people (particularly in the US for car ownership) regard having a Facebook account and owning a car as indicators of some minimum amount of social status. I love not having a car, and think Facebook is for people with lots of spare time, but…

Personally I think more people would be turned off by the fact that someone thinks they are a "loser" for having a Facebook account. Though it's a bit harder to quantify personality.

I referred to using FB regularly, not having an account, but I've edited the above to be more what I meant (wasting time on FB).

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#45
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a great source. It also tells men to wear red and eat garlic.

It's a left wing source (which are regarded as more reputable on HN [see edit]) reporting a study from the University of Wales, specifically: > A 2010 study from the University of Wales Institute found that men pictured with a Silver Bentley Continental GT were perceived as way more attractive than those pictures with a Red Ford Fiesta ST. What is your issue with The Independent and/or The University of Wales? [edit]…

The Independent is likely to be a deficient source of information compared to other outlets: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/12/independent-an...

> It's a left wing source (which are regarded as more reputable on HN)

Yes, most major outlets are left-leaning but that does not necessarily imply that most left-leaning outlets are more reliable or are considered more reliable by HN.

Edit: to add even more to this silliness, the linked article isn’t even written by an Independent employee

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#46
post #39
post #34

"Why does it appear that the vast majority of women prefer the same small group of men?" The chart doesn't show that. The chart shows that in surveys, women and men answer a survey with different average baselines for what "average" means. That's interesting, but it fundamentally tells you about how men and women answer surveys, not how they are attracted to the opposite gender. What tells you their actual attraction…

I have noticed this (as have many others). Women are far more off in self-reporting their levels of attraction, arousal and the reasons for it. Everything from studies done on bisexuality (women reported not being turned on by certain combinations but their genitals disagreed) to the OKCupid study cited above. Men seem to be much better predictors and analyzers of what they are attracted to. "What do women want" is a…

Rewording your comment (and not commenting on its veracity), it sounds like you're saying that women can differentiate between what their consciousness and what their reproductive glands want better than men. That's a pretty common stereotype about men...

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#47
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with the independent as a source is that it is obviously designed to be consumed as entertainment rather than a serious look at the topic. You can cherry-pick studies that show something entertaining, but that doesn't tell you much about the current scientific consensus. It's like how news loves to report that popular indulgences protect against cancer (wine, chocolate, coffee, whatever) Are you planning on…

> Are you planning on starting to wear red and eat a lot of garlic in order to attract more women? Yes, I do wear subtly eye catching clothing and it does affect the amount of sexual attention I recieve from both men and women. You genuinely haven't heard of this before?

[deleted]

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#48
post #15

I am very skeptical when there is a claim of some "objective status [of a person]" (in this case in the model assumption "In the simulation, men make their mate selection decisions by minimizing over the age of their prospective partners, whereas women maximize over the status of the men in their accessible vicinity." - which requires that there is some "objective" status hierarchy of men). My counterclaim is that th…

> A third example: Before it was paid very well, being a "computer science proramming nerd" had a very low status in general society. On the other hand being a good programmer/hacker could mean high status among nerds/hackers (again some specific community)/

> My counterclaim is

How many people listen to it? If it's any, you probably have some of this fictitious status. Ever listened to a vagrant's claims? Would the average person of lower virtue?

> A third example: Before it was paid very well, being a "computer science proramming nerd" had a very low status in general society. On the other hand being a good programmer/hacker could mean high status among nerds/hackers (again some specific community)/

You tried very hard to make 'computer science programming nerd' not roll off the tongue, just sayin'... I liked programming way more before computer science, and got a lot more girlfriends before I had a mortgage. Not sure I've ever met a CSPN :)

Status is real because programming is real, but humans are infinitely creative and can make their own status by writing their own program.

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#49

Classic agent-based modelling fallacy: "I made an algorithm that replicates an observed distribution, so my description of the algorithm is a potential explanation for that distribution.". The fact that you could relabel the relevant variables any which way (the author does, by equivocating status and technology) and product the same outcome should illustrate what a weak form of "evidence" this is. A better title wou…

> "I made an algorithm that replicates an observed distribution, so my description of the algorithm is a potential explanation for that distribution."

I mean, technically it is a potential explanation, just not necessarily a correct one.

Re: How Does Technology Affect Which Men Women Choose?

#50

Classic agent-based modelling fallacy: "I made an algorithm that replicates an observed distribution, so my description of the algorithm is a potential explanation for that distribution.". The fact that you could relabel the relevant variables any which way (the author does, by equivocating status and technology) and product the same outcome should illustrate what a weak form of "evidence" this is. A better title wou…

Yeah. This is a classic case of what happens when someone who is good at math but has, how shall I put this gently, zero domain knowledge, gets their paws into something.
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