In much of the animal kingdom, mating involves the males putting on a display, and the females choosing the male they like, and the male pretty much always going off with the female who chooses him, certainly for a short interlude but also for a child-raising length of time.

In our closest relatives, the chimp and bonobo, there is extreme female promiscuity, with various theories as to why. In chimps, there is an alpha male but females will mate secretly with lessers. Bonobos do it with any other bonobo, any time, any place.

Humans have developed a system where more often the female worries most about display, though males certainly also do it. In most cultures, the male then selects the female he finds most attractive. The female then also decides if she wants that male or will wait for a better one.

The most dramatic example of the common animal mode is the peacock, who is all about display, and chosen by the rather plain peahen. The peacock is sexually selected for so much display his tail is actually a survival disadvantage.

So I am curious as to what would happen if an online dating service were built on the peafowl model. Which is to say only men would put up ads (display), possibly for free, and women would browse and contact the men they like (possibly having to pay to do so.) They could also include a reputation system for women to rate the men after dropping them, which some dating services are already playing with.

My question is, would this be a spectacular failure, or a surprising success, or just midling? It is common in dating systems to have the women pay less or nothing, and have the men bear the price. This is partly due to social norms and expectation about financial ability based in tradition. And in business, you do want to go where the money is. Men are also less protective of their identity in online dating, so they would just put their real contact info in the free part of their profile, not wanting the woman's non-payment to be a barrier.  read more »