Eric Siu examines why online dating makes relationships less likely to form. One explanation: men trade resources like attention and commitment for sexual opportunity, while women trade sexual opportunity for resources. This dynamic shifts how people connect.
You kind of mentioned that, you know, online dating actually decreases the likelihood of a relationship starting. So let's go into that a little bit.
Yeah, this is sort of counterintuitive. You would think that with online dating, it should be easier than ever to get into a relationship. To understand why this phenomenon occurs, you have to kind of appreciate the underlying assumption of the transaction in the sexual marketplace, which is at base, men are attempting to exchange resources for sexual opportunity and women are attempting to exchange their sexual opportunity for resources. And I'm using resources Resources in the most, like, broad sense possible. It's not necessarily money, though it certainly could be. It could also be attention. It could be emotional validation. It could be instrumental support. It could be children. It could be commitment. It could be time. All kinds of things. It's resources like everything except sex.
