Golden Rule of Rational Life

First we need to refer on the fundamental definition of economics: it is The study of choice in a world of unlimited (material) wants and scarce resources. Choice often is based on “rational self-interest”.

Developing from that concept, we enter the Golden Rule of Rational Life, which is described as pursuing an activity as long as marginal benefit outweighs the marginal cost (where this marginal cost is the best available alternative can provide/best available choice). The Rule is also known (imprecisely) as “Cost-Benefit Principle”.

The economic problem is unlimited wants, limited resources; where choice involves compromise between competing wants. Mating problem, on the context of the articles, relates to this with the rules stated by Leigh (2014):

1. There is no perfect match for you, but some matches are definitely better than others.

2. You won’t know how well suited you are to someone until you get to know them.

3. Time is scarce, so a decision based on limited information is probably better than no decision at all.

Attempting to find a partner by searching one by one for someone single and compatible is a significant cost and takes up a lot of personal resources (time, money, energy, health). In order to minimize cost, the article suggests the usage of online dating services & speed dating events.

To illustrate this, an economics analysis on online dating (through the mobile application Tinder) in the context of golden rule of rational life in a mating problem shows that the usage of Tinder  lowers the search costs as it is a market where we can safely assume that the participants are actively looking for a partner. The instant utilization of the Tinder application gives more exposure to more people in less time so the chance of meeting a potential artner is higher

So that it can be a successful transaction, someone must have what we want and in turn, this person must want what we have. By simply asking a few questions to the Tinder match through the instant message option, we can further decrease the search cost, as we no longer has to expend time and money in going on a date in order to talk and get to know our potential matches. It is economically efficient, albeit less romantic.