[temp-dude-87844]

It's not necessary to suppose that humans date like a prehistoric caricature; it's far more likely that people are making decisions based on the kind of information easily available to them, and their intuition about how likely that signal is to be accurate.

It's a discovery problem: people on today's mainstream dating sites select first on looks, then on profile substance, then on digital communication style and/or availability, and then on in-person compatibility. People filtered out from someone's potential matches at earlier stages in the process do not make it to later stages.

People in real life choose dates using the same criteria, but the order of filtering stages is more flexible to the circumstances. In real life, it's also more likely to benefit from a trusted third party who introduces you to a match.