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Why do we pick similar mates, or do we?
Thomas M M Versluys1, Ewan O Flintham1, Alex Mas-Sandoval1
1Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, United Kingdom.
Biology Letters
|November 23, 2021
Summary
People tend to choose mates similar to themselves, a pattern called positive assortative mating (PAM). This review explores the multifaceted causes of PAM by integrating insights from various disciplines to understand this common human behavior.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Human Behavior
- Social Sciences
Background:
- Positive assortative mating (PAM), where individuals mate with similar others, is a common human phenomenon.
- Existing research often adopts narrow disciplinary perspectives, leading to fragmented understanding of PAM's causes.
- A comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach is needed to fully explain PAM.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for understanding the causes of human positive assortative mating (PAM).
- To synthesize explanations from biology, social sciences, and humanities for PAM.
- To propose future research directions emphasizing interdisciplinarity.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature across multiple disciplines.
- Development of a conceptual framework integrating proximate and ultimate explanations for PAM.
- Discussion of mechanisms like stratification, convergence, and mate choice, including methods to control for confounders.
Main Results:
- Identified proximate causes of PAM: stratification, convergence, and mate choice.
- Outlined ultimate explanations for PAM, encompassing both adaptive and non-adaptive processes.
- Highlighted the need for rigorous methods to study mate choice and control for confounding factors.
Conclusions:
- PAM is a complex phenomenon with multiple interacting causes.
- An interdisciplinary approach is crucial for a holistic understanding of PAM.
- Future research should prioritize interdisciplinary collaboration to advance the study of human mating patterns.
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