When our neocortex was developing way back in the day, the average human group consisted of around 150 people, and members of reproductive age totaled around 25. Sounds like slim picking compared to the abundance of prospects available today through online dating sites like Match.com, right? Well, researchers studied people’s preferences for how many options are best when it comes to how satisfied people are with mate options, and among the 88 study participants, 20 to 50 possible mates seemed to be the preferred amount. Using online dating with access to millions of guys might actually be hindering us. It’s like when you go to a restaurant that has 100 different sandwich choices on its menu. You end up spending a lot of time trying to figure out what you want, and then after you place your order, you can’t help but wonder whether you might have liked the one with avocado better. [Physorg.com]
