Searching for information is costly. I'm planning on buying a new car after I graduate next month, and in anticipation of this major purchase, I'm searching for information to ultimately help me make the optimal purchasing decision. In what way is searching for information costly? It may be true that I can get tons of information on different car models for "free" on the Internet, but it is the overwhelming abundance of information itself that speaks to the costliness of searching. It takes time to (a) find information sources, (b) judge the sources' reputability, and (c) sift through loads of information. To the degree that I have valuable alternative uses for my time (believe me, I do more than just blogging and grading papers), searching is costly.
In dating/social situations, we search for information all the time. As we explore the possibility of making a social "transaction," (i.e., going out with a desired dating target), we first gather information about that person through any number of activities: discretely "checking them out," Facebook stalking them, interrogating mutual friends about the target, and, of course, simply talking to the person to gauge the depths of his/her intellectual and social aptitudes.
It turns out that searching for dating information is not costless. For one thing, not everyone has Facebook, so you can't always rely on using the Internet to do quick and easy research. Also, you and the target may not have any mutual friends, so it could be cumbersome to get "character references." Moreover, simply approaching the target and flirting/conversing with him/her to gauge potential is certainly costly in terms of time, effort, and guts.
As a "sassy," single female, I have a request that may pertain to some of the males out there: I know a really easy way for you to lower our search costs and also avoid awkward/unwanted flirtation "transactions" with us. If you are married: wear your ring. That's usually not a big deal; I think that most BYU wives are pretty good at enforcing that one. If you are engaged: You should ALSO wear a ring--on your left hand ring finger. Yes, it's disappointing to catch a glimpse of an attractive guy only to immediately discover, upon a quick "ring-check," that he is taken. However, that scenario is much better than flirting with a ring-less guy and then seeing him two weeks later with a gold band on his ring finger, finding out that he got married over the weekend and was, therefore, engaged at the time of said flirting incident. Have I ever been that girl? Why else would I write this post? In essence, knowing whether someone is engaged/married, through an easy inspection of whether that person is wearing a ring, is a valuable piece of information, since it minimizes embarassment costs and reduces the need to search for additional information on an individual's relationship status.
I have one friend who made her now-husband wear a ring while they were engaged, and he happily obliged. Those two are my heroes. Is it too much to ask men to wear engagement rings? I'm sure there are others out there besides me who have been an initiator (or victim. . . ) of unwanted flirtations resulting from ignorance on someone's relationship status. . . .
