soreff 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: soreff 12 September 2010 11:04:00PM *  2 points [-]

I think everyone would be better off if men were less picky about women's appearances. If you optimize for that one thing, it's harder to optimize for anything else, including various sorts of compatibility.

Very true.

However, I think it would be rude to push that point of view-- it seems so clear that men want what they want, and generally don't want to want to be different.

It would be interesting if this were something that was subject to chemical modification. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing one could verbally persuade a man about - but if there was something that reduced pickiness with say the same side effect profile that caffeine has towards increasing alertness I think it would be a good addition to our culture.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 12 September 2010 11:53:19PM 4 points [-]

It might be possible to verbally persuade some men that this was worth working on-- but it might also take considerable work just to find usable methods.

I've read one account of a man who found that pornography was giving him irrational standards about what women ought to look like and do, and that staying away from pornography for a while (months?) recalibrated his standards towards actual women.

For a science fictional look at the possible effects of not being able to see facial beauty, see Ted Chiang's "Liking What You See: A Documentary".

Comment author: Jonathan_Graehl 21 September 2010 04:03:53AM *  1 point [-]

But for sure if he abstained from pornography, he was also reducing his masturbation, and therefore more biologically driven to have sexual desire for the women actually available to him in reality.

I do agree that porn is a visual superstimulus and at least momentarily distorting.

Comment author: mattnewport 21 September 2010 04:21:59AM 3 points [-]

but if there was something that reduced pickiness with say the same side effect profile that caffeine has towards increasing alertness I think it would be a good addition to our culture.

Don't we call this substance 'beer'?

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