Expensive gifts that can't be resold impress women

Man! I wish I had known this back when it mattered. From Reuters.

Forget expensive presents or costly jewelry. Wining and dining is the best way for men to woo women, scientists said Tuesday.

Researchers at Imperial College London developed a mathematical formula and modeled courtship as a sequential game to find the best way to impress the ladies.

Their results show that offering an expensive present signals the man's serious intentions but he must be wary of being exploited by gold-diggers who will dump him after receiving the gift.

"Guys are less likely to offer expensive gifts to females they don't have a long-term interest in. And girls won't be impressed with cheap gifts. By offering expensive but worthless gifts, such as dinner and theater trips, the male pays no cost if the invitation isn't accepted," said Dr Peter Sozou, of University College London (UCL).

If women are not interested they are unlikely to accept the invitation, according to the research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

So expensive gifts work - if the women are interested. If not, an offer of an expensive gift that cannot be resold avoids the danger of Golddiggers.

This is news that will save men a lot of money, and will cost jewelers some sales. The right women are not damaged, and the wrong ones are weeded out.

Gee. This is GOOD research!

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The following is from the originally published report by The Royal Society .

What are the characteristics of a good courtship gift?

We address this question using evolutionary game theory. A man may be able to indicate his long-term commitment to a woman by offering her a gift which is very costly to him. But he faces the danger of being exploited by a gold-digger who intends to dump him once she gets the gift.

The results from this study show that an "extravagant" gift which is costly to the man but worthless to the woman can solve the problem. The study shows also how an alternative version of the model may be applied to other animal species with no paternal care, again demonstrating a potentially important role for costly but worthless gifts.

The Royal Society has made this article, from Proceedings of The Royal Society B, free to view on-line. If you are interested in finding out more about Royal Society publications, please visit our publishing page.

Read on-line: Costly but worthless gifts facilitate courtship