The Canine Signal: Why a Dog is the Best Wingman You'll Ever Have
In the bustling, anonymous marketplace of a dating app, your profile is your storefront. You have mere seconds to convince a potential customer to stop and look closer. Many strategies are employed: exotic travel photos, witty bios, carefully selected group shots. But one strategy has become so ubiquitous it demands economic analysis: the pet picture. Why does featuring a dog (or, to a lesser extent, a cat) seem to work so well? It's not just because they're cute. A pet photo is one of the most efficient signals a person can send in the dating market. It solves problems of information asymmetry and reveals preferences far more effectively than a line of text ever could. The Pet as a Costly Signal of "Good Stock" As we've discussed, markets are plagued by a lack of information. Is this person kind? Are they responsible? Can they commit? You can claim to be all these things in your bio, but this is what economists call "cheap talk." Anyone can say it, so...