While looking around on the Web, I came across this article which discusses Game Theory with women searching for the perfect mate. Males and females have different strategies when it comes to the mating game. Women seem to have more features that they look for in a man.
Women want to pick out the "good" men from the "bad" men and for them to do that, that want to court them for a certain amount of time. Women cannot see all the importance they look for just by looking at the outside of a man, they would rather want to get information and know the man that is inside. They say,
"that extended courtship enables a male to signal his suitability to a female and enables the female to screen out the male if he is unsuitable as a mate."
The women get a postive payoff when they court and eventually mate a "good" man and a negative payoff when the male is a "bad" man. They also state that a male always gets a positive payoff when courting any female, but how much depends on if he is "good" or "bad."
When women are searching deep inside the men, they usually like to go through the courting process for a long period of time. That be going to dinners, movies, picnics, or whatever they feel like doing, this can put a spin on the financial situation of the male because they usually pay for mostly everything. But in the end, a lot of time is spent for both men and women in determining the outcome. Women usually hold out on mating to see how long the man will stick around and because they want to get to know them a lot before getting too "serious." They wouldn't feel comfortable with the fact that they might have just mated with a "bad" man. If they don't stick around very long and quit the courtship then he was "bad," he didn't care about getting to know her. Likewise if the male stuck around for however long it took to mate, then he was a "good" match. He showed that he was much more interested in her than just the mating.
In the end, the "good" guys stick around and the "bad" guys leave leaving the women with a positive payoff. This takes some time and a lot of risk, but in the end it pays off. What do you think? Do you think this game theory is efficient? What about you males, do you think it's right for the woman to hold off on mating to see whether or not you are a "good" man?
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Wow, your last question is a bit awkward, but whatever.
ReplyDeleteI think that this article (where is the article from again, I didn't see a link?) forgets to mention that men to (at least some of them) are also looking for a suitable mate that fits a list of criteria, or is compatible. Not all males are solely looking for a "mating" partner.
I also find it interesting that the said article doesn't seem (correct me if I'm wrong) to take the time and money spent in the pursuit of the female as a cost when calculating the payoff for the male.
I mean, if some guy (we're assuming he's purely animalistic, interested only in sex) spends tons of money and time chasing some female, the has one "serious" night with her and finds it to be rather lacking, then I would think he would be worse off.
I apologize, I forgot to souce the website. Here is a link to my information,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/romance_really_game_and_game_theory_will_give_you_some_answers
From this article, I do not believe that it was focusing on men, I believe that it's main focus was women trying to find to right man for them. I agree with you that this could also pertain to men in the same way as females because yes, there are "bad" girls just like "bad" boys.
I believe that in the end, yes the payoff does include the money and time spent, but if he does not stick around, his payoff will be negative. The article did not clearly state that but it makes sense.