Equally Shallow Genders
Women think they are different but they are not. When people about to start speed-dating are asked what they want in a partner, men rate physical attractiveness as far more important than earning prospects, while women rated attractiveness as only a bit more important than earnings. In actual speed-dating choices, however, men and women both rely on looks much more than earnings:
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By Robin Hanson · Hundreds of paid subscribers
This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
I have no data to back this up, but we all know it's true: Men don't believe they are "different," but instead are continually reminded by the culture of their moral inferiority (superficiality) relative to women. Women do believe they are different in that they are less superficial. The "gold digger myth," if anything, is an attempt to balance moral accounts between the genders. As someone pointed out, wealth probably doesn't matter unless it is very low - 9.4% unemployment suggests that might be the case for quite a guys these days. For fun google "recession gender gap." Interesting reading.
Your income potential, as a female, does not matter, something else that we all know is true. I don't care about your one male friend who only dates women with Harvard MBA's, it means nothing, so you can save it. Your meandering post dances around the elephant in the room and smacks of desperation.
Imprecise flippancy != dishonesty
And the rest of Mr. Hanson's description is pretty fair. Why bother criticizing tone when there's substance to talk about?
But yes, I'd be interested in some data on how people choose in circumstances where there's more opportunity for the "deeper" traits to be revealed. Anyone know where to find this?