justtellmewhy
Iron
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2026
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To begin with, I want to say that this entire thread consists of my assumptions and thoughts about what would happen if the red button wins and how this would affect the future dating market in our lives.
Here is the original question:
Everyone on Earth is secretly separated into individual rooms. In front of each person are two buttons — a red one and a blue one. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If 50% or fewer press the blue button, everyone who pressed the blue button dies, while those who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press — red or blue?
There is also a version that makes the red button more appealing:
There are two buttons — blue and red. If you press the red button, you are guaranteed to survive, regardless of what everyone else chooses. If you press the blue button, your survival depends on the choices of others: for everyone to survive, more than 50% of people must press the blue button. If 50% or fewer choose blue — only those who pressed the red button survive.
I want to start again by saying that I am assuming a scenario in which the red button ultimately wins. Here I want to start presenting my argument and the chain of thoughts that follow from one another. According to research, women tend to report higher levels of empathy than men, which leads me to assume that the majority or a significant portion of the people who choose the blue button would be women. My hypothesis is that women would be more likely to choose the blue button in this specific dilemma.
As a result of this scenario, the red button wins, meaning that everyone who chose blue dies. Here I see a large proportion of women dying, which creates an imbalance in the relationship market, because now the ratio of men to women becomes even worse for men than the current global ratio of approximately 100 women to 101 men.
Because of this, the question of “hypergamy” becomes even more relevant. Women would become a scarce resource in the dating market and therefore would have even more choice among men, since the value of one woman (regardless of her condition, appearance, or any other factors) becomes higher.
This would make women’s standards regarding different characteristics in men even higher. In other words, my logic suggests that a scarcity of partners of one sex gives greater power of choice to that same sex.
This entire thread is my thoughts on the blue and red button dilemma in the context of the global economics of dating.
Am I saying that hypergamy in this world could become stronger? I think so.
But I would like to hear other people’s thoughts on this topic. Perhaps there are holes in my chain of reasoning that contradict each other.
Also, here are all the links to the studies I used when thinking about this topic:
Women and empathy
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36104300/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36807483/
Global male-to-female ratio
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/dyb/dybsets/2024.pdf
Sex ratio and mate preferences
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8292757/
Sex ratio and bargaining power in dating markets
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886915005462
Women’s preferences for financial resources
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32196435
Partner preferences, resources and gender inequality
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41838902/
Here is the original question:
Everyone on Earth is secretly separated into individual rooms. In front of each person are two buttons — a red one and a blue one. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If 50% or fewer press the blue button, everyone who pressed the blue button dies, while those who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press — red or blue?
There is also a version that makes the red button more appealing:
There are two buttons — blue and red. If you press the red button, you are guaranteed to survive, regardless of what everyone else chooses. If you press the blue button, your survival depends on the choices of others: for everyone to survive, more than 50% of people must press the blue button. If 50% or fewer choose blue — only those who pressed the red button survive.
I want to start again by saying that I am assuming a scenario in which the red button ultimately wins. Here I want to start presenting my argument and the chain of thoughts that follow from one another. According to research, women tend to report higher levels of empathy than men, which leads me to assume that the majority or a significant portion of the people who choose the blue button would be women. My hypothesis is that women would be more likely to choose the blue button in this specific dilemma.
As a result of this scenario, the red button wins, meaning that everyone who chose blue dies. Here I see a large proportion of women dying, which creates an imbalance in the relationship market, because now the ratio of men to women becomes even worse for men than the current global ratio of approximately 100 women to 101 men.
Because of this, the question of “hypergamy” becomes even more relevant. Women would become a scarce resource in the dating market and therefore would have even more choice among men, since the value of one woman (regardless of her condition, appearance, or any other factors) becomes higher.
This would make women’s standards regarding different characteristics in men even higher. In other words, my logic suggests that a scarcity of partners of one sex gives greater power of choice to that same sex.
This entire thread is my thoughts on the blue and red button dilemma in the context of the global economics of dating.
Am I saying that hypergamy in this world could become stronger? I think so.
But I would like to hear other people’s thoughts on this topic. Perhaps there are holes in my chain of reasoning that contradict each other.
Also, here are all the links to the studies I used when thinking about this topic:
Women and empathy
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36104300/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36807483/
Global male-to-female ratio
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/products/dyb/dybsets/2024.pdf
Sex ratio and mate preferences
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8292757/
Sex ratio and bargaining power in dating markets
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886915005462
Women’s preferences for financial resources
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32196435
Partner preferences, resources and gender inequality
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41838902/
