Social exchange in personal advertisements

Social Exchange theory

Abstract

This report was undertaken to explore the social exchange theory in relation to online dating. Social exchange theory suggests that social behaviour is the result of an exchange process such as give and take, if someone is offering something what are you going to give them in return (Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2015). This report has looked at 50 profiles (25 men and 25 woman) on the dating site findsomeone.co.nz and the qualities that they are looking for in a partner and what they are offering in exchange.  There were 5 hypotheses chosen to be tested which once the data was analaysed ended up with four supported and one unsupported. To get a better understanding on what

When it comes to online dating profiles there are traits that

Online profiles were impact of the fundamental attribution error (FAE), on how a person can make attributions for one scenario, but may change their attribution for the same scenario in different situations and whether this impact influences a person’s choose attributions. Five participants were in this study and were asked to read three situations over six scenarios. Each situation had identical actor/s and behaviour different scenario. Participants were asked to choose how normal/abnormal they thought the behaviour was and to explain why they chose that option. Results showed that participants were not affected by the fundamental attribution error.

Introduction

This report was undertaken to explore the social exchange theory in relation to online dating. Social exchange theory suggests that social behaviour is the result of an exchange process such as give and take, if someone is offering something what are they going to get in return (Vaughan & Hogg, 2008). When it comes to online dating profiles there are traits that people find attractive and some that they don’t, what one person finds attractive another may not. Social exchange theory proposes that social behavior is the result of an exchange process with the purpose being to maximize benefits and minimize costs. George Homans a sociologist developed this theory in which people evaluate the potential benefits and risks of social relationships. Social exchange theory can be broken down into 2 parts, costs and rewards, how much is this relationship going to cost us and what are we going to get out of this relationship (Vaughan & Hogg, 2008). It is a theory for interpreting relationships as a series of interactions that are based around costs and rewards analysis (Vaughan & Hogg, 2008). Cost include things that you may see as negatives such as the amount of time or energy that you have to put into a relationship, these costs will be different for everyone.  When entering into a relationship of any kind the first thing that may come up is what are you going to get out of it, if it is a romantic you may look for companionship or financial security, the other person in this relationship will also be asking questions, although the questions they are asking may be different than yours. What are they going to get out of this relationship? If both of you get out what you are looking for then the rewards will keep you together, but if say only one of you is getting what you need the other may walk away as the cost outweighs the rewards. This theory revolves around rewards, if both parties are getting rewards then the interactions will continue. Rewards come in many different forms, such as a smile or a cuddle, to more tangible gifts such as money or a meal out.  Costs also come in many forms, such as time invested or money spent, it all depends on the person as to what they think is a cost to them (Homans, 1958).

Initially when looking into interpersonal relationships and what people were looking for in a relationships, social scientists would look at lonely hearts advertisements in newspapers (Strassberg & Holty, 2003). With the invention of the internet and with more people now using online dating sites, it has never been easier to set up a personal advertisement, making it easier to study what men and women are looking for in a partner(Strassberg & Holty, 2003). It has been found in research carried out by Okami and Shackelford (2001) that in both short and long term dating contexts, men are searching for a younger more attractive mate than themselves whereas woman are searching for social status and financial security in a partner. In line with this, research conducted by Buss (1989) had findings that were consistent with Okami and Shackleford (2001)

This report is out to test the hypotheses that when it comes to partner selection on dating sites is education an important aspect of choosing a partner. Alongside of this it will be looking at, as a society that shuns smoking, is looking for a non-smoking partner important. Following on it will be looking at whether men more so than women offer financial security and earning potential. As well as these are men more than women looking for traits describing physical appearance. Finally do women more than men advertise traits of physical appearance.

Method

Sample

The dating site that the sample was chosen from is www.findsomeone.co.nz, it is a dating site that caters for a wide range of people with over 514,958 New Zealanders 18+ looking for a partner. The site caters to men and woman looking for relationships with those of the opposite sex as well as those of the same sex. The site has been around for 14 years and is free to join but also gives you the option to upgrade to unlock more features.

As this report was focusing on heterosexual relationships, data was taken from 25 male adverts and 25 female adverts. The search criteria that was used for both sexes was ages 40-70 in the Auckland region. There were no preferences made for children, religion etc so that we got clean data. When choosing both the male and female advertisements, once the criteria had been put in, every third advert was used to collect the data from the 25 needed for each sex.

Procedure

Once findsomeone.co.nz was chosen as our dating website the next thing that needed to be done was to set create profiles. One needed to be created for a female searching for a male and one for a male searching for a female, this was done using a separate email addresses for each profile. A username needed to be chosen for each and a password to get into the site. Once into the site both the male and female profiles were set with them aged at 44, living in Auckland and looking for those of the opposite sex in the age range of 40-70 years old. No other preferences were chosen such as income, education, married or single, with no photos added for either. The profiles were basic with just enough information to get searching on the site. Before going any further, a table was made up with 8 columns, education sought and education offered, physical appearance sought and physical appearance offered, non-smokers sought and non-smokers offered, and financial security sought, and financial security offered. Rows were then numbered 1-25. Once this was done there was a search engine on the home page that was used to search the profiles for the preferences for both female searching for male and male searching for female with the age range for both at 40-70 years old in the Auckland region. There is an option to chose members with photos only and this was not chosen for either search. For both searches over 1000 members came up. On each profile page there is a more about me section which has information about appearance, education, occupation, salary and smoker/non-smoker amongst other things. If a profile had filled out this section on their profile, they got a tick in the corresponding column as offered. In the section below the more about me section is the I’m looking for section in which is a written blurb about he qualities they are, are not looking for. This is where the data for the sought column comes from.

Results

The data was collated by first counting the number of ticks for each trait for sought and for offered with separate data for men and women. The table below shows the data that was collected for both men and women. There were 25 profiles used to collect the data for both sexes with every third profile being used to collect the data.

Table 1

Data collected for traits sought and offered for both men and women

This table is showing the traits that this lab report is looking for in relation to the hypothesis that were chosen. It is showing the traits that were both offered by both men and women and the traits that they were looking for. This table is showing what men and women value when they are looking for a partner alongside that which they think potential partners are looking for.

Table 2

Percentages of traits sought and offered for both men and women

This table, although similar to table one is showing the percentages of what is being sought and offered in relation to traits. men and women think that education is an important trait to have as 88% of men and 76% of women have offered this information in their profile. Physical appearance as a trait is being offered by 92% of men and by 100% of woman, whereas only 24% of men listing physical appearance as a trait they are actively seeking in a partner with woman at 52%. Non smoking is another trait that men and women seem to value with 92% of men and 84% of woman offering up the information that they are non smokers. The percentages in relation for both men and woman looking for non smokers is men at 4% and woman at 8%. When is comes to financial security 52% of men are offering up this information whereas only 20% of woman are doing the same. When looking for financial security 12% of men and 8% of woman are seeking this.

Figure 1. Traits sought after and offered by men.

Figure 0ne is showing the traits men are offering versus what they sought. They are offering more than what they are seeking in education, physical appearance, non-smoker and financial security.

Figure 2. Traits sought after and offered by women.

Figure 0ne is showing the traits woman are offering in relation to what they are seeking. Physical appearance, education and non smoking are high on womans lists when it comes to offering information, with physical appearance the top trait sought after by woman. Financial security is very low on traits offered by woman but is also very low on what woman are looking for.

Discussion

This report was undertaken to explore the social exchange theory in relation to online dating. is out to test five hypotheses. For the hypothesis of education being an important aspect of choosing a partner although 12% of men and 8% of woman were looking for partners with good education, 88% of men and 76% of woman put down education as an offered trait agreeing with the hypothesis the education is an important to be down as an offered trait for so many men and woman.  This report also looked at the hypothesis is looking for a non-smoking partner important. The answer to this is yes as 92% of men and 84% of woman offered non smoking as a trait, although only 4% of men and 8% of woman specifically put down non smokers as a trait they were looking for in a partner the fact that so many were offering up this information leads the writer to the conclusion that it is indeed an important partner trait. The next hypothesis was that that of financial security asking the question of whether men more so than women offer financial security and earning potential. When it came to financial security 52% of men offered this up over 20% of woman, also men with 12% were looking for partners who financially secure over woman with only 8% of woman looking for financial security as a trait in a new partner. men are offering financial security and earing potential over woman but they are the ones that are looking for a partner who offer this trait with over woman. this hypothesis is supported. The next hypothesis being tested, are men more than women looking for traits describing physical appearance. Woman more so than men with 52% over mens 24% are seeking partners with good physical appearance. This hypothesis is not supported by the data. The final hypothesis to be tested was, women more than men advertise traits of physical appearance. !00% of woman advertised their physical appearance over 92% of men which supports the hypothesis.

Of the five hypotheses tested four were supported with one unsupported. The hypothesis that was not supported brings in to question research on this topic by Stassberg and Holty (2003) and Okami and Shackelford (2001) both of whom came to the conclusion that men more so than woman are looking for partners who offer physical appearance in exchange for financial security. More research would need to be done on this topic as it seems that times may be changing with men and woman growing out of set stereotypes such as the man should support the woman and the woman should be young and attractive (Okami & Shackleford 2001).

Social exchange theory is of the understanding that there is give an take in social relationships (Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2015). The data in this report mostly supports this theory but it seems likely that for this report the traits or qualities that men and woman are looking for in prospective partners may indeed be outdated. More research would need to be done on the topic to get an up to date look at mating strategies in the near future as it seems that times may be changing. Yes social exchange theory is in play when it comes to personal advertisements but it seems that times are changing as to what either sex is willing to exchange.

Have the roles changed are more men now looking for partners who can support themselves, are the old roles of men and women being tipped upside down. Are men over supporting woman and feel that they should be able to support themselves. This is something that needs to be researched in more detail.

References

Burton, L., Westen, D., & Kowalski, R. (2015). Psychology: Australian and New Zealand edition (4^th ed.). Brisbane, Australia: John Wiley & Sons. 01:36.

Vaughan, G., & Hogg, M. (2008). Theories of attraction. In Introduction to social psychology (5th ed.) (pp. 500-505). Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia.

Homans, G. (1958). Social Behavior as Exchange. American Journal Of Sociology, 63(6), 597-606. doi: 10.1086/222355

Strassberg, D. S., & Holty, S. H. (2003). An experimental study of women’s internet personal ads. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32, 253–260

Okami, P., & Shackelford, T. K. (2001). Human sex differences in sexual psychology and behavior. Annual Review of Sex Research, 12, 186–241.