NancyLebovitz comments on More art, less stink: Taking the PU out of PUA - Less Wrong

66 Post author: XFrequentist 10 September 2010 12:25AM

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Comment author: jacob_cannell 10 September 2010 11:12:50PM *  9 points [-]

There are multiple levels of duping.

Now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak and the PUA game is well known, I've found that many women are actually surprisingly interested in it. To the extent that PUA skills increase unconscious signals that women find attractive, it may have a net benefit for women by upping the typical attractiveness of the dating pool, as Sarah points out. It could have an effect like tasty but safe artificial sweeteners, or widespread effective invisible makeup and cosmetic surgery.

That level of false signaling is probably harmless and even net benefit for women, but the aspect that many women rightly dislike or hate is the darker side to PUA which focuses solely on manipulating women into one night stands using whatever techniques work - which mainly includes alot of bullshit and dishonesty.

So it depends on what exactly is being faked and to what extent. As we all know men have less risk with casual sex, have higher net demand for it than women, and thus women have to be more choosy in finding mates. PUA 'dark art' persuasion techniques thus give women legitimate reasons for concern. (and reasons to be familiar with PUA game in general).

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 11 September 2010 04:18:09AM 4 points [-]

My reaction to this is positive-- my reaction to matthewnewport's fairly similar

There's at least two groups of people who potentially stand to lose from widespread discussion of PUA: women, who may fear that they will be duped into choosing low quality mates by males emulating the behaviours they use to identify high quality mates and men who are already successful with women who may fear increased competition.

is negative.

I think the difference is that matthew implies that there's one scale all women use for judging men, and it isn't at all about how men treat them.

Comment author: mattnewport 11 September 2010 07:49:38AM 2 points [-]

matthew implies

Please, just Matt. Only my grandma calls me Matthew.

Comment author: AndyCossyleon 12 September 2010 06:03:03PM 4 points [-]

mattnewport -> mattnew port -> matthew port

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 11 September 2010 12:30:39PM 0 points [-]

Sorry-- noted for future reference.