@dappled_leaves That is not my experience. I am quite fortunate to have good looks, money, formidable reproductive equipment as well as unparallelled humility. ~
The study I quoted was done by the Nobel prize winner in economics Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. They use “big Data” to tease out real information from the noise.
They looked at the results of 75 million matches (maybe 90 million) with the associated characteristics of each person and what they stated they desired in a partner.. Then he looked at whether the match was successful or not.
Most women did not specifically say they were looking for a man with money. They say they want someone who “makes them laugh”, or “likes walks in the park” or is a certain height or age range, or education level, etc. .
But, after analyzing the results from 75,000,000 matches, by far, only one factor was the best predictor of match success – the man’s income. Period.
Now you can argue that maybe healthier, better looking males make more money . Maybe. But all the other factors were dwarfed by income. He even cross correlated to pull out and examine the effect of height, weight,. body type. They were insignificant when compared to the man’s annual income. Dubner wrote that “likes walks in the park…was not even on the radar screen”.
Similarly, for men looking for women, the number one factor was the woman’s body weight followed by the woman’s income. Dubner even calculated how much income could offset extra weight. $ X /pound.
That study was done over 7 years ago. I’m sure the data set is larger now.
We might not like the answers but it is hard to argue with 75,000,000 data points.
By the way, I did read the book . I read Freakonomics a few years earlier so I had that in my mind as I read 50 shades..