Saturday, February 11, 2006

Do Blondes Prefer Gentlemen?

One of the upsides downsides of studying economics is how it effects your everyday, mundane cogitation. I now find it difficult to refrain from trying to analyze the praxeological underpinnings of even the most bizaare, non-economic related subjects.

Okay, maybe it's not the worst thing that has happened to me!

To illustrate the perfect case, just the other day I was mindlessly staring at a blond haired woman as she strolled by. Immediately what came to mind was a question of why many women like to dye their hair.

Now of course, the action axiom tells us that people act in the intentional expectation that their actions will help them to achieve greater satisfaction.

Okay, how will dyeing one's hair bring about greater satisfaction? I can think of two ways. First, because the individual believes that they look better with this other hair color, and secondly, because the individual is wanting to grab the attention of another with what the individual believes makes them more desirable to the other persons satisfaction.

But then I realized that the second reason must go deeper than that. After all, the woman who dyes her hair to satisfy the desires of men is ultimately doing it for the benefit of herself; that in the hope that some man will notice her and desire her companionship.

Wouldn't this scenario then fall under the dictum of "demand dictating supply"?

Anyway, as I was googling around I found what I thought is an amusing article written by an econometrician trying to gauge the supply and demand schedules of the personal ad marketplace.

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