Gay Bar Combinatorics

[snousle]

Here's an interesting mathematical problem.

Imagine that patrons of a gay bar are either bearded (B) or shaved (S). Each person either likes beards on other men (L) or dislikes them(D). So there are four kinds of people - BL, BD, SL, and SD, all occurring at some rate. These two qualities are probably not independent of each other, nor completely correlated.

Assume that your chance of getting laid is a function of the number of people you're mutually compatible with. A BD would get along with a SL, while having only a one-way attraction with a SD or BL, and no attraction at all with another BD. And so forth, through all sixteen glorious combinations.

The question is, given the rates at which these four kinds of people attend the bar, is it an advantage for a person who likes beards to grow one, or vice versa? In other words, in order to get laid, should one become the image of what you are attracted to, even if that isn't what you would normally choose yourself? Or should you do the opposite? If large numbers of people make such a choice, does the population converge to all BL and SD over time? Maybe it could change to all BD and SL if the initial conditions were different.

It's a surprisingly complicated problem and I haven't been able to get my head around it very well. It's fortunate that sub-optimal cruising strategies are still reasonably effective.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Your initial presentation assumes getting laid is the only motivational driver... even amongst gay men, that's not necessarily true. As sig_info points out, there are men who will not change their B/S state for internal reasons, however it might affect their chances of getting laid. I'm certainly one of those - I've been continuously bearded since I was first able to grow a decent beard as a teen, and the only reason that might ever change is medical necessity.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

All models are inadequate. But if you don't start by trying to understand a simplified model, understanding a more realistic one isn't going to happen on its own!

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Quite so. I just found the underlying assumption that getting laid is all that matters somewhat amusing. ;)

Of course, trying to generalize from ME would lead to a massively erroneous model for a wider population....