From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!cbosgd!nscs!rew Newsgroups: net.singles Title: Proportion of Potential Mates in a Population Article-I.D.: nscs.344 Posted: Mon Sep 20 15:46:58 1982 Received: Tue Sep 21 07:39:26 1982 Since I am prima facie unqualified for this group (I'm married) I feel obligated to contribute (that's how its done, right?). While one cannot know the exact proportion of potential mates in a population for certain, we can draw some conclusions from data on just who gets married (this leaves out casual encounters, of course). People get married primarily on the basis of propinqui. That is, they marry people they run into a lot, talk to and get aquainted with. This suggests that the proportion of potential mates in any population is quite high. If it was low, one would expect the proportion of people marrying relative 'strangers' to be high. Instead, there is a good deal of marrying the person next door. One could, of course, believe in destiny bringing them all together. The formal studies that produced these data (about propinquity, not destiny - sorry) merely corroborate older folk wisdom on the subject. All those parents who used to put their offspring into fraternities and sororities so they would meet the 'right kind' of person apparently knew what they were doing on some level. Bob Warren cbosg!nscs!rew