Information Asymmetry: When Blind Dates Become Desirable Part 2

In the last post I talked about the many means to create certain guarantees in our society. As you can see, there are many ways to get assurances. But there is no such system in the dating market. There is no record to track the number of hearts broken, or the number of times a person cheated. Nothing to tell you that this is the guy’s 12^th time telling a woman he just needs a bit more time before he commits.

But though such a system doesn’t exist in dating, there is another thing that human beings have relied on since the beginning of time. It’s neither 100% scientific nor foolproof, but it’s sometimes the closest thing to assurance one can find: reputation (remember how Cassio kept moaning about it to Iago in Othello?).

That is why people who swear that they won’t get set up eventually do as times goes by and they get fed up with the dating market. Friends and family who do the setting up act as character references for the potential matches. They might not always find people you are attracted to (after all, attraction is such a subjective thing), but at least they offer safer (less creepy/crazy) bets than strangers off the web.

Blind dates can work great, especially for people who’ve been betrayed in the past and for whom trust is a big issue. It is definitely worth adding it onto your existing search strategies. But now before you all rush off to get mum on the phone with Aunt Norma who’s going call her bingo club, do remember this: As Iago puts it: “Reputation is...oft got without merit, and lost without deserving...” Someone could be creepy yet pass your friends and family’s tests.