Success in Online Dating: 4 Tips

Jasbina Ahluwalia asks Paul Oyer, author of Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Economics I Learned from Online Dating: Yes, it’s funny with Tinder. People can be in a bar, but everyone’s on Tinder and no one is really interacting.

From your experiences, what are your top three tips that you might give singles based on economic principles or your own personal experiences?

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Paul Oyer

Four Tips for Singles:

  1. Find the Thickest Market
  2. Credibility
  3. Remember, People Don’t Always Tell the Truth
  4. Understand Assumptions

4 Tips: Success in Online Dating

One is definitely to think about finding the thickest market out there.

The second is credibility.

Third, keep in mind that people don’t always tell the truth and you have to really think through what you can and can’t believe about people.

I’m going to give you four tips.

The fourth tip is the idea I said before about getting someone else who’s objective to look at your website and tell you what they assume about you. What are the things that you haven’t said that they assume about you? Is it that you’re not serious?

Success in Online Dating: Be Realistic

The last thing I would say is from a very rationalist and economist point of view, and I feel very strongly about this, but at some point you have to settle.

It sounds like a negative thing, but it’s not. It’s all about being realistic.

Maybe this person isn’t perfect, but you should compare this to the loneliness you’re going to spend in the time it’s going to take you to find someone better.

Then you need to spend time wondering whether that person is going to like you back. Just be realistic about what you can look for.

It is very important for having the best possible outcome.

Success in Online Dating: Parallels in Job Market

To draw the parallel to the job market, the idea of searching endlessly until you find the perfect one is part of what leads us to be lonely.

It’s very similar to the dynamics of the marketplace where firms and workers are constantly looking. Many of them are not willing to settle for the best employee or job they can find. As a result, we end up with unemployment.

Success in Online Dating: Mantra

I like to say that loneliness is really just “romantic unemployment.” It’s being able to figure when to settle for the right match and the underlying economics are very similar.

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Tell Us:

Do these tips for success in online dating motivate you to go out and find your partner online? Share your thoughts with usin the comments section below.

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The above is an excerpt from Jasbina’s interview with Paul Oyer

The entire interview transcript is at: Dr. Paul Oyer Interview – Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating

Listen to the entire interview on: Intersections Match Talk Radio – Jasbina’s Lifestyle Show

Listen to the entire interview on Blog Talk Radio: Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating

Listen to the entire interview on iTunes

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