How Should One Overcome the Perils of Online Dating?

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How should one overcome the perils of online dating? Diana had been on OasisActive for over a month now and had yet to find a mate. Initially, Diana had a choice between two dating websites: OasisActive and eHarmony. She choice OasisActive because the opportunity cost was lower, as it is a free dating site (OasisActive’s comparative advantage). What she didn’t consider was that incentive of satisfying materialistic needs such as sex would not motivate men to register for eHarmony, as consumer price discrimination favours Oasis and features younger women – a trait valued by men. There was also greater information asymmetry in choosing OasisActive over eHarmony. Diana had attempted to attract a like-minded mate by listing “No Casual Sex” on her profile. This turned out to be a perverse incentive as it encouraged men to be deceptive about their intentions in order to increase their supply of sexual intimacy. It was clear that whilst her opportunity cost for using OasisActive over eHarmony was lower, it had also reaped less net benefit. Her initial cost-benefit calculation had been incorrect. So Diana began to think, I’m still single, and the variable costs are mounting. She had made a large emotional investment into online dating. Diana knew she was dealing with sunk costs but was irrationally driven to wait for her marginal benefit to exceed her marginal cost to regain a feeling of value and worth. As an economics student, she had also begun to realise she was in a very competitive market. She had been realistic about her purchasing power; she was attractive, though not supremely beautiful and she knew she needed to contend with women who were willing to lease instead of buy and who had maximised their total utility – at least in terms of superficial looks. Because OasisActive offered few metrics to measure compatibility, search and rejection costs accumulate,

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