  Romantic courtship is often described as taking place in a dating market
where men and women compete for mates, but the detailed structure and dynamics
of dating markets have historically been difficult to quantify for lack of
suitable data. In recent years, however, the advent and vigorous growth of the
online dating industry has provided a rich new source of information on mate
pursuit. Here we present an empirical analysis of heterosexual dating markets
in four large US cities using data from a popular, free online dating service.
We show that competition for mates creates a pronounced hierarchy of
desirability that correlates strongly with user demographics and is remarkably
consistent across cities. We find that both men and women pursue partners who
are on average about 25% more desirable than themselves by our measures and
that they use different messaging strategies with partners of different
desirability. We also find that the probability of receiving a response to an
advance drops markedly with increasing difference in desirability between the
pursuer and the pursued. Strategic behaviors can improve one's chances of
attracting a more desirable mate, though the effects are modest.
