Male contact choice using female availability signaling using Internet-based dating services

Jack Dikian

ABSTRACT

May 2003

Recent observations have demonstrated a greater preference by males for females signaling high availability using Internet-based dating services even when little is known of other traditional mate-values such as personality, beauty, and biological quality.

It is generally accepted that the evolution of traits that signal mate-quality is more complex in females than in males because females usually provide the bulk of resources for developing offspring. Consequently, competition inter alia often benefits males most strongly, whereas being discriminating in mate choice often benefits females strongly.

The appeal of this evolutionary explanation lies in part in its simple scientific validity, but in part with its consistency with long-standing, deep-seated cultural stereotypes about the roles of men and women.

So what of indirect courting strategies such as that played out over the new interaction channels such as Internet chat rooms, and Internet-based dating services. Here, little reliance can be placed on ornamentation appeal, assortative mating, visualization, and or other pair forming strategies.

In the absence of such determinates, it was found recently that males used female availability signaling to establish contact with those females at a much greater rate than with those females who did not declare availability so plainly. The observed contact rate was approximately 4:1.

Women who had otherwise described themselves as average in everyway, except to declare themselves as highly available through the use of language such as seeking a ?casual relationship?, or a ?discreet affair? attracted 4 times as many contacts from males as those woman who expressed their desire for a ?friendship? or a ?committed relationship?

Keywords: Mate selection, internet dating, availability signalling