Bruch & Newman 2018 — Aspirational pursuit of mates in online dating markets

What the study found

Bruch and Newman ranked users of a large US online dating site by desirability — inferred from who received messages from the most sought-after people — and then examined who messaged whom. They found a pronounced hierarchy of desirability in which people of both sexes tend to pursue partners more desirable than themselves, with the chance of getting a reply falling as that gap widens. ^[1]

both men and women pursue partners who are on average about 25% more desirable than themselves

^[1]

Why it matters here

Manosphere arguments often hold that online dating is uniquely rigged against men, or that a small minority of men absorb the bulk of attention (the so-called "80/20 rule"). This paper does document a steep desirability hierarchy, but it frames the pattern as an emergent property of the dating market that applies symmetrically to men and women, rather than a one-sided disadvantage. That framing is directly relevant to is online dating rigged against men? and is the 80/20 rule of dating true?, where the study's own interpretation matters as much as the headline number.