My friend Kathryn wrote an incredible blog post on Relative Comparisons and used a real world example - online dating. You should read this even if you don't care about online dating but it's a home run if you find that interesting too. There are so many interesting and persuasive things you can do with relative comparisons. I talk a lot about this stuff with the online companies I work with. Very powerful and Kathryn does a great job explaining it with a heavy dose of honesty and humor.
If I had to choose between two guys: one guy made about $250,000 per year and was just “ok” looking, and the other guy made about $60,000 per year, but was “hot”, I’d choose the guy with the cash.
I know…. I’m so superficial right? This is the truth according to a few researchers from University of Chicago and MIT who did a study to find out what factors drive communication between men and women.
The researchers recorded activity from 23,000 online daters during a three and a half month period and found that…..
For men there is no amount of income that the woman in the bottom ten percent in terms of appearance can earn to make men prefer her over women in the top 10 percent. That is, looks really matter to men relative to income. For women though, if the man in the bottom ten percent in terms of looks earns more than $248,500, they will prefer him over the more attractive guy earning $60,000. - bigthink.comI can appreciate these observations, but it’s now clear that girls are getting hosed when it comes to the online dating stuff.