ArticleScience advances2018
Aspirational pursuit of mates in online dating markets.
Article in Science advances, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolutionary Mismatch, Stress, and Competition: Making Sense of Psychosocial Problems in the Polycrisis Era.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Understanding dating intentions on linkedin through perceived trustworthiness and user engagement.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mate assessment based on physical characteristics: a review and reflection.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Hypergamy reconsidered: Marriage in England, 1837-2021.PloS one · 2025Article
- It takes two to tango: A directed two-mode network approach to desirability on a mobile dating app.PloS one · 2025Article
- Health during Relationship Transitions: Policy Implications for Dating, New Parenthood, and Bereavement.Policy insights from the behavioral and brain sciences · 2024Article
- A Critical Review of the Literature Regarding the Selection of Long-Term Romantic Partners.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Review
- The role of luck in the success of social media influencers.Applied network science · 2023Article
- Article
- The interplay of race/ethnicity and education in fertility patterns.Population studies · 2022Article
- The interplay between ranking and communities in networks.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The effect of mating market dynamics on partner preference and relationship quality among Himba pastoralists.Science advances · 2022Article
- Is Dating Behavior in Digital Contexts Driven by Evolutionary Programs? A Selective Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Femininity Concerns and Feelings About Menstruation Cessation Among Lesbian, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Women: Implications for Menopause.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2021Article
- Emergence of hierarchy in networked endorsement dynamics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Aggression heuristics underlie animal dominance hierarchies and provide evidence of group-level social information.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Marriage and Union Formation in the United States: Recent Trends Across Racial Groups and Economic Backgrounds.Demography · 2020Article
- Computational Social Science and Sociology.Annual review of sociology · 2020Article
- Prevalence and types of sexual inactivity in Britain: analyses of national cross-sectional probability survey data.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Polar Similars: Using Massive Mobile Dating Data to Predict Synchronization and Similarity in Dating Preferences.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Romantic courtship is often described as taking place in a dating market where men and women compete for mates, but the detailed structure and dynamics of dating markets have historically been difficult to quantify for lack of suitable data. In recent years, however, the advent and vigorous growth of the online dating industry has provided a rich new source of information on mate pursuit. We present an empirical analysis of heterosexual dating markets in four large U.S. cities using data from a popular, free online dating service. We show that competition for mates creates a pronounced hierarchy of desirability that correlates strongly with user demographics and is remarkably consistent across cities. We find that both men and women pursue partners who are on average about 25% more desirable than themselves by our measures and that they use different messaging strategies with partners of different desirability. We also find that the probability of receiving a response to an advance drops markedly with increasing difference in desirability between the pursuer and the pursued. Strategic behaviors can improve one's chances of attracting a more desirable mate, although the effects are modest.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.