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Asymmetric Information & Deepika Padukone:" You can't have it all"

 Asymmetric Information & Deepika Padukone:" You can't have it all"

Before starting this blog, lemme put a pretext that, this blog is for academic purpose and doesn't mean anything derogatory to the individuals, organizations or any other stake holders concerned thereby.


This idea first popped up in my mind while having a not-so-academic discussion with two of my great friends, Alok and Akash. If you have watched and can't recall the dialogue of Deepika, "Jitna bhi try karo Bunny, kuch na kuch toh chootega hi. Isliye yahin, isi pal ka mazza lete hain," from the 2013 Indian coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama movie Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which in English translates into a tautological phrase, "no matter how much you try, you will miss out on certain things, and you can't just have it all." This is primarily a philosophical idea and can be understood from several interesting dimensions of life and academics. The dimension that I wish to explore here is about asymmetric information, meaning that "in an exchange (with/out payments), none of the parties are informed symmetrically (meaning adequately) about the transaction and the agent." However, the objective of this blog is not to answer anything, but rather to pose a question and provide a better understanding of the perspective.


So, asymmetric information is a better representation of the real-world information structure, as it is absolutely unreasonable to expect perfect information. Not only asymmetric information but also the fact that no one is perfect, is well known and observed. I leave the interpretations to your healthy perspectives.


When you are present at an exchange and you are not absolutely aware of the attributes and intentions of the agent you intend to transact (match) with, the question of adjustment comes up. In the general experience of individuals, every human endeavor ends up accumulating more information over time, and thus, they choose to live with (adjust) if the experience is not pleasant.


In the situation of the film, Deepika's realization is that the day is short and the time at their disposal is limited. So, given the number of places they have to roam around, they cannot complete the journey and have to accept not being able to visit a few places. Is it a transaction? Yes, you may argue differently in terms of with whom they are transacting - life? pleasure? But the inevitable fact is that they are transacting their inefficiency (say in terms of not being able to drive faster or not having the ability to allocate their time at different places in a way to cover all the destinations, etc.) for the loss of pleasure they experience from not being able to cover all the places. This sounds obvious, doesn't it? Okay, let's see...

Now, let's imagine Naina (the character Deepika played) and Bunny (Ranveer Kapoor) dating and meeting over some dating apps instead of being childhood school friends. We are interested in discussing parties who are new (not adequately informed) to each other, as being childhood friends would enable them to acquire quite a lot of information about each other. So, they are on a date. What do they know about each other? Well, dating profiles do provide different layers and dimensions of information. However, we are not intending to talk about how they matched; rather, we are going to focus on how they move ahead in their relationship.

They know about each other's looks (height, weight, color, and all that, which got verified on the first date in both their minds). They might know about what they do for a living (there's no scope to verify that yet; you don't expect them to carry documents supporting their resume beside the candle). They also know a few of their preferences relating to pets, having a baby, and other factors (fragile preferences, as they may tend to change over time). Now, let's assume that they both preferred on the app that they are looking for a "life partner"; thus, they are expecting to meet someone to live life with. However, there is absolutely no way to verify that at this point.


With all this asymmetric information on both sides (which is natural to exist), when do they actually match and decide to settle together? Now, the variable of adjustment we discussed earlier comes into play. The entire question this blog wants to address is, what is the level of optimum adjustment in the presence of asymmetric information? In this context, "block" will definitely mean not continuing the relationship, and "go" will signify otherwise.


When they both know that they don't have complete information about each other, the question arises: when do they want to settle, and what is the level of optimum adjustment that they are willing to agree upon? These days, dating apps are introducing tasks like filling in the statement, "we are a match if..." but very few are offering statements that can lead to a "block," such as "we can't meet again if..." – maybe for business reasons.


Lastly, the question of optimal adjustment becomes even more important in reality with asymmetric information in place. For instance, Bunny might be thinking, "I am not good at X-attribute, so I am willing to adjust." However, the things he is willing to adjust upon could be ranked, with the least adjustable attribute of Naina being at the bottom of the list. On the other hand, there are breaking blocks; attributes on which the other person has to perform at a desirable level for the match to prevail.


The most interesting thing here is that there is absolutely no way that both can verify or even disclose all these attributes to each other due to intentional or structural reasons. So what do they do? They have to agree upon certain things that they categorize as "MUST" until they settle (marry). However, blocks are not confined to marriage; meaning, they may accumulate a few pieces of information about each other's attributes in the future (that they personally deem as breaking blocks), which could potentially end their settlement.


In essence, the presence of asymmetric information adds complexity to the process of matching and settling in a relationship, and individuals have to navigate through the uncertainties by making adjustments and agreeing on what they consider essential until they reach a point of commitment. And this is not only working in case of Naina & Bunny in particular or the marriage market through online dating in general; it is well spread over all sort of transactions that can be experiences like, college admission and etc. So, You are again left with the question, What is the optimal level of adjustment? It depend.. isn't it? Definitely.. But it can be studied and explored across several dimensions for sure.

Happy re-searching..

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