Single Chicago men seeking women can get hurt in heart as well as wallet

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Updated: February 23, 2012 8:13AM

Chicago is male skewed — 103.6 single men for every 100 single women.

But a scarcity of women doesn’t just dampen men’s spirits — it could hurt their finances, too.

When men think they outnumber women, they borrow more, save less and make more impulse purchases, according to a study by University of Minnesota marketing professor Vladas Griskevicius.

University researchers asked groups of men to read news articles suggesting that their local population had either more men or women. They were then asked to indicate how much money they would save each month from a paycheck, as well as how much they would borrow on credit cards for purchases.

When the articles suggested there was a surplus of men, the savings rate fell 42 percent, and the men were willing to borrow 84 percent more each month.

The study also found real-life evidence of this behavior: In Columbus, Ga., where there are 1.18 single men for every single woman, the average consumer debt was $3,479 higher than it was 100 miles away in Macon, Ga., where there were 0.78 single men for every woman.

Sex ratios don’t affect women’s financial decisions, but they do affect their expectations of how much men should spend on them, the study found. After reading an article stating that men outnumbered them, women expected men to spend more on dinners, Valentine’s Day gifts and engagement rings.

In 2010, there were eight unmarried men for every nine unmarried women in the U.S., the Census Bureau says. For unmarried Americans age 15 to 49, though, there were 11 unmarried men for every 10 unmarried women.

Gannett News Service