Cuffing season — the time of year when people frantically look for partners to help keep them warm during the cold, dark winter — is upon us.
This year, it comes as women and men alike complain about the straight dating scene. A July New York Times Magazine cover story talked about “heterofatalism,” a term used to capture women’s exasperation with men, and a recent Tinder report finds that 94% of women and 91% of men think dating is getting harder.
Thankfully, there’s a useful way to understand what’s going wrong: market design. As a Harvard-trained economics professor, I study how markets help people find the right matches. Dating works the same way: A “market” is simply a system that connects people to the options they want. Right now, it isn’t going great for many of the people who are still searching.
There are too many options.
To those who aren’t themselves slogging through the dating apps, the fact that more potential partners makes things harder might seem counterintuitive. We typically think that having more choices is good for us. It lets us be more selective. Why settle for a partner who is mediocre when someone better is just a swipe away?
