Women 6x more likely to refuse marrying down (intelligence)
Keeper AI data shows women are 6 times more likely than men to refuse a partner less intelligent than them.
Snapshot · Modern Wisdom
The New Science Of Female Attraction - Psychology Roundtable - #1133
Explore episode
Aug 6, 2026
Where this was said
Are Dating App Users Worse Partners?
At 1:11:35 · chapter starts 1:10:36
The conversation sharpens around two provocative claims: first, Jake Kozlowski's Keeper AI data showing women are 12 times more likely than men to refuse a partner who earns less (6x for intelligence, 4x for education), collected in a high-stakes environment where men pay $50,000 for the service; second, a late-2010s study finding college students actively using Tinder scored 0.3-0.4 standard deviations higher on dark triad traits. Chris Williamson connects the dots: the characteristics that make someone a winning dating app user — confident self-presentation, emotional detachment, novelty-seeking — may be precisely the traits that make them a bad spouse. Macken Murphy notes that Keeper AI's preferences occupy a hybrid space between stated and revealed preferences: you're telling a matchmaker with real financial skin in the game what you want.
Keeper AI Data: Women Almost Never Marry Down
Keeper AI's premium matchmaking data — where men pay $50,000 upfront and have real skin in the game — shows women are 12x more likely to refuse a partner who earns less, 6x for less intelligent, 4x for less educated. Marrying down is a near deal-breaker for women and a non-issue for men.
Women 12x more likely to refuse marrying down (earnings)
Keeper AI data shows women are 12 times more likely than men to refuse a partner who earns less than them.
Tinder dark triad effect size 0.3–0.4
A study found Tinder users scored significantly higher on dark triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) than non-users, with effect sizes of 0.3–0.4.
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