assortative mating

Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

by Nicholas A. Christakis  · 26 Mar 2019

most of this similarity comes about due to homogamy, or the tendency of like to marry like in the first place, which is known as assortative mating. Assortative mating can occur for traits that are mutable (such as religion) or immutable (such as a person’s height or ethnicity).46 Confusingly, humans sometimes manifest

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would leave frail people to mate with other frail people. Both strong people and frail people would prefer strong mates, but, since choice is mutual, assortative mating by muscle strength would arise. We would observe a similarity in genes between partners as a result of such a process. A second underlying method

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a set of inherited processes that influence those choices. Scientists have evidence for all three of the above mechanisms in diverse species, including in humans. Assortative mating has been well described for specific traits such as body size, personality, and other apparent features in many animals.53 Disassortative mating has also been

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very important physical attribute in men, sometimes even more important than appearance.63 Political scientists Rose McDermott, Dustin Tingley, and Peter Hatemi have shown that assortative mating based on political ideology could operate partly through olfactory cues. They found that, to a small but discernible extent, people prefer the smell of mates

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genome that show a tendency to be similar across spouses have been evolving faster over the past thirty thousand years, as we would expect if assortative mating conferred fitness advantages. And we found that loci exhibiting even moderate assortativity among spousal pairs were evolving faster than loci exhibiting no

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assortative mating or those exhibiting disassortative mating. In other words, something about assortative mating may enhance the fitness of humans and thus increase the prevalence of the relevant gene variants. Our analysis showed that

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Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 52 (1918): 399–433; S. Wright, “Systems of Mating. III: Assortative Mating Based on Somatic Resemblance,” Genetics 6 (1920): 144–161. 48. B. D. Neff and T. E. Pitcher, “Genetic Quality and Sexual Selection: An Integrated Framework

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): 37–46; S. A. Baldauf, H. Kullmann, S. H. Schroth, T. Thunken, and T. C. Bakker, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Size Assortative Mating by Mutual Mate Choice as a Resolution of Sexual Conflict,” BMC Evolutionary Biology 9 (2009): 129. 50. R. J. H. Russell, P. A. Wells, and

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. Fu, M. A. Nowak, N. A. Christakis, and J. H. Fowler, “The Evolution of Homophily,” Scientific Reports 2 (2012): 845. 52. In this case, genotypic assortative mating might turn an otherwise neutral mutant genotype into a kind of “good gene.” However, finding a mate with a minor allele might be costly when

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is not common and especially when it is not initially advantageous. 53. Jones and Ratterman, “Mate Choice”; Y. Jiang, D. I. Bolnick, and M. Kirkpatrick, “Assortative Mating in Animals,” American Naturalist 181 (2013): E125–E138; Russell, Wells, and Rushton, “Evidence for Genetic Similarity.” 54. R. Laurent and R. Chaix, “MHC-Dependent Mate

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Mate Selection: The Importance of Smell for Women,” Evolution and Human Behavior 23 (2002): 359–364. 64. R. McDermott, D. Tingley, and P. K. Hatemi, “Assortative Mating on Ideology Could Operate Through Olfactory Cues,” American Journal of Political Science 58 (2014): 997–1005. 65. A. Nishi, J. H. Fowler, and N. A

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. Christakis, “Assortative Mating at Loci Under Recent Natural Selection in Humans” (unpublished manuscript, 2012). Several small-scale studies have explored the extent to which humans preferentially mate with

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evolution. See R. Sebro, T. J. Hoffman, C. Lange, J. J. Rogus, and N. J. Risch, “Testing for Non-Random Mating: Evidence for Ancestry-Related Assortative Mating in the Framingham Heart Study,” Genetic Epidemiology 34 (2010): 674–679; and R. Laurent, B. Toupance, and R. Chaix, “Non-Random Mate Choice in Humans

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21 (2012): 587–596. 66. In our analysis, we did not find substantial evidence for disassortative mating in the HLA regions. Nishi, Fowler, and Christakis, “Assortative Mating.” This was in keeping with some prior studies. See, for example, Chaix, Chao, and Donnelly, “Mate Choice”; and A. Derti, C. Cenik, P. Kraft, and

The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee

by Jared Diamond  · 2 Jan 1991  · 436pp  · 140,256 words

E. Walster et al, 'Importance of physical attractiveness in dating behavior', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4, pp. 508-16 (1966); J.N. Spuhler, 'Assortative mating with respect to physical characteristics', Eugenics Quarterly 15, pp. 128-40 (1968); E. Berscheid and K. Dion, 'Physical attractiveness and dating choice: a test of

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the matching hypothesis', Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 7, 173-89 (1971); S.G. Vandenberg, 'Assortative mating, or who marries whom? , Behavior Genetics 2, pp. 127-57 (1972); G.E. DeYoung and B. Fleischer, Motivational and personality trait relationships in mate selection

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', Behavior Genetics 6, pp. 1–6 (1976); E. Crognier, 'Assortative mating for physical features in an African population from Chad', Journal of Human Evolution 6, pp. 105–114 (1977); P.N. Bender and M.D. Newcomb

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of marital success and failure', Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 46, pp. 1053-70 (1978); R.C. Johnson etal, 'Secular change in degree of assortative mating for ability? , Behavior Genetics 10, PP- 1–8 (1980); W.E. Nance et al, 'A model for the analysis of mate selection in the marriages

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of twins', Acta Geneticae Medicae Gemellologiae 29, pp. 91-101 (1980); D. Thiessen and B. Gregg, 'Human assortative mating and genetic equilibrium: an evolutionary perspective', Ethology and Sociobiology 1, pp. 111—40 (1980); D.M. Buss, 'Human mate selection', American Scientist 73, pp. 47

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effects of phenotype and social background on mate selection', Behavior Genetics 15, pp. 75–90 (1985); and A.C. Heath et al, 'No decline in assortative mating for educational level', Behavior Genetics 15, pp. 349-69 (1985). Also relevant is a book by B.I. Murstein, Who Will Marry Whom? Theories and

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preferences in Lesser Snow Geese', Behaviour 53, pp. 151-70 (1975); F. Cooke et al, 'Assortative mating in Lesser Snow Geese (Anser caerulescensY, Behavior Genetics 6, pp. 127-40 (1976); and F. Cooke andJ.C. Davies, 'Assortative mating, mate choice, and reproductive fitness in Snow Geese', pp. 279-95 in Mate Choice by Patrick

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home

by Dan Ariely  · 31 May 2010  · 324pp  · 93,175 words

at Home Chapter 6 - On Adaptation: Why We Get Used to Things (but Not All Things, and Not Always) Chapter 7 - Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market Chapter 8 - When a Market Fails: An Example from Online Dating Chapter 9 - On Empathy and Emotion: Why We Respond to

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feel hot, we need to jump out, find a cool pond, and identify and enjoy the pleasures of life. Chapter 7 Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market A large, full-length mirror awaited me in the nurses’ station. As I hadn’t walked more than a few feet

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future might hold. As I analyzed the situation over and over, my personal concerns soon developed into a more generalized interest in the romantic dance. Assortative Mating and Adaptation You don’t need to be an astute observer of human nature to realize that, in the world of birds, bees, and humans

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challenged”* individuals date others like them. Social scientists have studied this birds-of-a-feather phenomenon for a long time and given it the name “assortative mating.” While we can all think of examples of bold, talented, rich, or powerful yet aesthetically challenged men coupled with beautiful women (think of Woody Allen

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Farrow, Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts, or almost any British rock star and his model/actress wife), assortative mating is generally a good description of the way people tend to find their romantic partners. Of course, assortative mating is not just about beauty; money, power, and even attributes such as a sense of humor

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or less desirable. Still, in our society, beauty, more than any other attribute, tends to define our place in the social hierarchy and our assortative mating potential. Assortative mating is good news for the men and women sitting on the top rung of the attractiveness ladder, but what does it mean for the majority

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best I can do’? Or will he somehow learn to adapt in some way, change, and not realize that he has settled?” * * * A DEMONSTRATION OF ASSORTATIVE MATING, OR AN IDEA FOR AN AWKWARD DINNER PARTY Imagine that you have just arrived at a party. As you walk in, the host writes something

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on, until a 4 extends a hand to you and you go together to get a drink. This simple game describes the basic process of assortative mating. When we play this game with potential romantic partners in the real world, it is often the case that people with high numbers find others

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women on dates, and to aim higher (which some may see as negative), can euphemistically be called “men’s open-mindedness in dating.” Against All Assortative Mating Odds We all have some wonderful features and some undesirable flaws. We usually learn to live with them from a young age and end up

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over the effects that my injury would have on my romantic future. I was certain that my scars would dramatically change my position in the assortative mating hierarchy, but I couldn’t help feeling that this was wrong in some ways. On one hand, I realized that the dating market operates in

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announcements, but I do remember sitting across the table from one of the most amazing people I have ever met: Sumi. By any stretch of assortative mating imaginable, she should have had nothing to do with me. We started spending more and more time together. We became friends. She appreciated my sense

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David Schkade, “Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change,” Review of General Psychology 9, no. 2 (2005): 111–131. Chapter 7: Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market Based on Leonard Lee, George Loewenstein, James Hong, Jim Young, and Dan Ariely, “If I’m Not Hot, Are You Hot

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search feature of your e-book reader. A Accessory Transit Company, 154 acknowledging workers, 74–76, 80 acronyms, 120 adaptation, 157–90 assortative mating and, 191–212; see also assortative mating focusing attention on changes and, 159–60 hedonic, 160–84; see also hedonic adaptation nineteenth-century experiments on, 157–58 to pain, 160

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–51 for medical errors, 152 Apple, 120n battery replacement issue and, 141–42 art, homemade, 89–90 Asian tsunami, 250, 251 assembly line, 78–79 assortative mating, 191–212 altering aesthetic perception and (sour grapes theory), 198–99, 200, 201, 203 author’s injuries and, 191–96, 210–11 dinner party game

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, 140–41, 146 attachment: to one’s own ideas, see Not-Invented-Here (NIH) bias to self-made goods, see IKEA effect attractiveness, assortative mating and, 191–212 see also assortative mating auctions, first-price vs. second-price, 98–99 Audi customer service, author’s experience with, 131–36, 137, 149, 153–54 experimental

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response to bailout and, 128–31 bankruptcy, 129, 130 Barkan, Racheli, 39, 109–10, 299 basketball, clutch players in, 39–41 beauty: assortative mating and, 196–212; see also assortative mating general agreement on standard of, 203 Becker-DeGroot-Marschak procedure, 91 Beecher, Henry, 167 behavioral economics: goal of, 9–10 human rationality not

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, 220–21, 230–32, 233–35 playing hard to get and, 104 standard practice of, 224–25, 227–28 yentas (matchmakers) and, 213 see also assortative mating; online dating; speed dating decision making: author’s medical care and, 284–88 cooling off before, 257, 279 emotions and, 261–77 gender differences and

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, 105, 106 future, foreseeing adaptation to changes in, 160, 171–74 G gardening: children growing food and, 121 enjoyment factor and, 105–6 gender differences: assortative mating and, 209, 211 decision making and, 274–76 pain threshold and tolerance and, 168–69 Gideon, 288–89 global warming, 158, 251–52 Gneezy, Ayelet

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, 188 Roll-up game, 24, 34 romantic relationships: canoeing and, 278–79 emotional cascades and, 277–78 resilience to breakup of, 172–73 see also assortative mating; dating Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 295 Rwanda, genocide in, 238, 253, 255 S SAP accounting software, 54, 77 SAT scores, scores on practice tests vs., 42

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–41, 246–48 Small, Deborah, 239–41, 246–48 Smith, Adam, 77–78, 79 sneakers, designing your own, 95 social contract, 128 social hierarchy, see assortative mating social loans, 234 social pressure, 42–46 anticipatory anxiety and, 45 cockroach experiment and, 45–46 public speaking and, 42–43 “Some National Stupidities” (Twain

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), 107–8 Something from the Oven (Shapiro), 86 Sony, 120–21 sour grapes theory, 198–99, 200, 201, 203 speed dating: in experiment on assortative mating and adaptation, 205–10 for older adults, 229 standard process of, 206–7 virtual dating and, 226–27 Spiller, Stephen, 109–10, 303–4 Spock

The Irrational Bundle

by Dan Ariely  · 3 Apr 2013  · 898pp  · 266,274 words

at Home Chapter 6 - On Adaptation: Why We Get Used to Things (but Not All Things, and Not Always) Chapter 7 - Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market Chapter 8 - When a Market Fails: An Example from Online Dating Chapter 9 - On Empathy and Emotion: Why We Respond to

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feel hot, we need to jump out, find a cool pond, and identify and enjoy the pleasures of life. Chapter 7 Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market A large, full-length mirror awaited me in the nurses’ station. As I hadn’t walked more than a few feet

…

future might hold. As I analyzed the situation over and over, my personal concerns soon developed into a more generalized interest in the romantic dance. Assortative Mating and Adaptation You don’t need to be an astute observer of human nature to realize that, in the world of birds, bees, and humans

…

challenged”* individuals date others like them. Social scientists have studied this birds-of-a-feather phenomenon for a long time and given it the name “assortative mating.” While we can all think of examples of bold, talented, rich, or powerful yet aesthetically challenged men coupled with beautiful women (think of Woody Allen

…

Farrow, Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts, or almost any British rock star and his model/actress wife), assortative mating is generally a good description of the way people tend to find their romantic partners. Of course, assortative mating is not just about beauty; money, power, and even attributes such as a sense of humor

…

or less desirable. Still, in our society, beauty, more than any other attribute, tends to define our place in the social hierarchy and our assortative mating potential. Assortative mating is good news for the men and women sitting on the top rung of the attractiveness ladder, but what does it mean for the majority

…

best I can do’? Or will he somehow learn to adapt in some way, change, and not realize that he has settled?” A DEMONSTRATION OF ASSORTATIVE MATING, OR AN IDEA FOR AN AWKWARD DINNER PARTY Imagine that you have just arrived at a party. As you walk in, the host writes something

…

on, until a 4 extends a hand to you and you go together to get a drink. This simple game describes the basic process of assortative mating. When we play this game with potential romantic partners in the real world, it is often the case that people with high numbers find others

…

women on dates, and to aim higher (which some may see as negative), can euphemistically be called “men’s open-mindedness in dating.” Against All Assortative Mating Odds We all have some wonderful features and some undesirable flaws. We usually learn to live with them from a young age and end up

…

over the effects that my injury would have on my romantic future. I was certain that my scars would dramatically change my position in the assortative mating hierarchy, but I couldn’t help feeling that this was wrong in some ways. On one hand, I realized that the dating market operates in

…

announcements, but I do remember sitting across the table from one of the most amazing people I have ever met: Sumi. By any stretch of assortative mating imaginable, she should have had nothing to do with me. We started spending more and more time together. We became friends. She appreciated my sense

…

David Schkade, “Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change,” Review of General Psychology 9, no. 2 (2005): 111–131. Chapter 7: Hot or Not? Adaptation, Assortative Mating, and the Beauty Market Based on Leonard Lee, George Loewenstein, James Hong, Jim Young, and Dan Ariely, “If I’m Not Hot, Are You Hot

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search feature of your e-book reader. A Accessory Transit Company, 154 acknowledging workers, 74–76, 80 acronyms, 120 adaptation, 157–90 assortative mating and, 191–212; see also assortative mating focusing attention on changes and, 159–60 hedonic, 160–84; see also hedonic adaptation nineteenth-century experiments on, 157–58 to pain, 160

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–51 for medical errors, 152 Apple, 120n battery replacement issue and, 141–42 art, homemade, 89–90 Asian tsunami, 250, 251 assembly line, 78–79 assortative mating, 191–212 altering aesthetic perception and (sour grapes theory), 198–99, 200, 201, 203 author’s injuries and, 191–96, 210–11 dinner party game

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, 140–41, 146 attachment: to one’s own ideas, see Not-Invented-Here (NIH) bias to self-made goods, see IKEA effect attractiveness, assortative mating and, 191–212 see also assortative mating auctions, first-price vs. second-price, 98–99 Audi customer service, author’s experience with, 131–36, 137, 149, 153–54 experimental

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response to bailout and, 128–31 bankruptcy, 129, 130 Barkan, Racheli, 39, 109–10, 299 basketball, clutch players in, 39–41 beauty: assortative mating and, 196–212; see also assortative mating general agreement on standard of, 203 Becker-DeGroot-Marschak procedure, 91 Beecher, Henry, 167 behavioral economics: goal of, 9–10 human rationality not

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, 220–21, 230–32, 233–35 playing hard to get and, 104 standard practice of, 224–25, 227–28 yentas (matchmakers) and, 213 see also assortative mating; online dating; speed dating decision making: author’s medical care and, 284–88 cooling off before, 257, 279 emotions and, 261–77 gender differences and

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, 105, 106 future, foreseeing adaptation to changes in, 160, 171–74 G gardening: children growing food and, 121 enjoyment factor and, 105–6 gender differences: assortative mating and, 209, 211 decision making and, 274–76 pain threshold and tolerance and, 168–69 Gideon, 288–89 global warming, 158, 251–52 Gneezy, Ayelet

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, 188 Roll-up game, 24, 34 romantic relationships: canoeing and, 278–79 emotional cascades and, 277–78 resilience to breakup of, 172–73 see also assortative mating; dating Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 295 Rwanda, genocide in, 238, 253, 255 S SAP accounting software, 54, 77 SAT scores, scores on practice tests vs., 42

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–41, 246–48 Small, Deborah, 239–41, 246–48 Smith, Adam, 77–78, 79 sneakers, designing your own, 95 social contract, 128 social hierarchy, see assortative mating social loans, 234 social pressure, 42–46 anticipatory anxiety and, 45 cockroach experiment and, 45–46 public speaking and, 42–43 “Some National Stupidities” (Twain

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), 107–8 Something from the Oven (Shapiro), 86 Sony, 120–21 sour grapes theory, 198–99, 200, 201, 203 speed dating: in experiment on assortative mating and adaptation, 205–10 for older adults, 229 standard process of, 206–7 virtual dating and, 226–27 Spiller, Stephen, 109–10, 303–4 Spock

Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World

by Branko Milanovic  · 23 Sep 2019

, one who earns 50 units and another 100, and two women, one earning 10 units and the other 20. Now, suppose that there is some assortative mating (also called homogamy), that is, a positive correlation between husbands’ and wives’ earnings: thus the man with earnings of 100 marries the woman with earnings

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1950s), while in the other couple both continue to work. The ratio of the two family incomes will be 100 to 60. Now let the assortative mating remain the same, but both women (as today) stay in the labor force: the ratio of the two family incomes becomes 120 to 60, that

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is, inequality increases. The example shows that under conditions of assortative mating, inequality will go up if women’s participation in the workforce increases. It will go up even more if mating was previously random or disassortative

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(with richer men marrying poorer women). Some have argued that assortative mating has become much more common in liberal meritocratic capitalism because social norms have changed such that more women are highly educated (in fact, their graduation

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push income inequality up. However, it will only push inequality up during the period of transition from nonassortative mating (or assortative mating with nonparticipation of wives in the labor force) to assortative mating. Once assortative mating and labor force participation rates have reached their limits, the inequality-enhancing effect disappears. Inequality stabilizes, albeit at a high

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enhance inequality. It differs from classical capitalism most distinctively in the feature that capital-rich individuals are also labor-rich, and probably also in greater assortative mating. It differs significantly from social-democratic capitalism in several respects: it exhibits a rising aggregate share of capital in net income, it has labor-rich

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capitalists, it almost certainly has a greater prevalence of assortative mating, and it most likely has greater intergenerational transmission of inequality. Three points need to be made, however, before we move on to a more detailed

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from deep changes in the nature of work in more advanced capitalism and globalization, and neither is likely to be overturned in the medium run. Assortative mating is also a systemic factor to the extent that it derives from the equalization of access to education for women and men, which itself stems

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that homoploutia is a product of extremely high wages “joining” (in the same individuals) an already highly concentrated ownership of capital. 2.2e Greater Homogamy (Assortative Mating) It may be useful to open this topic with an anecdote. Some ten years ago, I found myself in an after-dinner conversation, lubricated by

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same values and tastes. And such mutually indistinguishable people marry each other. Recent research has documented a clear increase in the prevalence of homogamy, or assortative mating (people of the same or similar education status and income level marrying each other). A study based on a literature review combined with decennial data

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, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps.html. In a very ambitious paper, Chiappori, Salanié, and Weiss (2017) tried to explain both the rise of assortative mating and the increasing level of education among women (which contrasts with a lack of increase in educational attainment for men). They argued that highly educated

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as much of a deterrence in the marriage market as an attraction. Marriage education premium There is a further link between, on the one hand, assortative mating, and, on the other hand, increasing returns to investment in children, which only more educated couples are able to provide. They can, for example, expose

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of the inequality increase in the United States between 1967 and 2007 can be explained by assortative mating (Decancq, Peichl, and Van Kerm 2013).30 For countries in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), assortative mating accounted for an average of 11 percent of increased inequality between the early 1980s and early

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− 0.394). The extent to which homogamy increases inequality, while positive, is not exactly clear. In an early estimation, Greenwood et al. (2014a) found that assortative mating explains the lion’s share of increased inequality in the United States between 1960 and 2005. They retracted that finding later and in a corrigendum

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between 0.1 and 1 Gini point out of the 9 Gini points by which observed inequality increased. 31. Fiorio and Verzillo (2018) found that assortative mating in Italy is very strong among men and women belonging independently to the top 1 percent. Women in the top 1 percent of income distribution

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.” Journal of Economic History 66(2): 283–312. Fiorio, Carlo V., and Stefano Verzillo. 2018. “Looking in Your Partner’s Pocket before Saying ‘Yes!’ Income Assortative Mating and Inequality.” Working Paper 2 / 2018, Dipartmento di Economia, Università degli Studi di Milano, February. http://wp.demm.unimi.it/files/wp/2018/DEMM-2018

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. 2018. “Well-being in Metrics and Policy.” Science 362(6412): 287–288. Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov, and Cezar Santos. 2014a. “Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality.” American Economic Review 104(5): 348–353. Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov, and Cezar Santos. 2014b. “Corrigendum to ‘Marry Your Like

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: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality.’ ” http://pareto.uab.es/nguner/ggks_corrigendum.pdf. Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, and Guillaume Vandenbroucke. 2017. “Family Economics Writ Large.” NBER Working

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. “From Workers to Capitalists in Less than Two Generations: A Study of Chinese Urban Elite Transformation between 1988 and 2013.” Unpublished manuscript. Yonzan, Nishant. 2018. “Assortative Mating and Labor Income Inequality: United States 1970–2017.” Unpublished manuscript. Yonzan, Nishant, Branko Milanovic, Salvatore Morelli, and Janet Gornick. 2018. “Comparing Top Incomes between Survey

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mode of production,” 74, 75, 245n7 Assets: deconcentrating ownership of, 46; liberal meritocratic capitalism and higher rate of return on rich people’s, 31–34 Assortative mating, liberal meritocratic capitalism and, 18–19, 36–40 “Athens” laws, 68 Atkinson, Anthony, 48 Atomization: global capitalism and, 187–190; relation to commodification, 190, 192

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–178 High imperialism, 74 High-tech offshoring, 152 Hinduism, hierarchy in, 177 Historical materialism, 224 Historicism, 244n3 Hobsbawm, Eric, 224 Hobson, John, 206 Homogamy. See Assortative mating Homogeneity, welfare state and, 51, 52, 155–156 Homoploutia, 34–36, 66 House, Edward, 80 Household mode of production, 189 Household surveys, 239n24; in China

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capitalist centers of production, 194–196 Indonesia: GDP per capita, 211, 212; increase in economic growth in, 8 Industrial Revolution, 7, 8, 150, 191 Inequality: assortative mating and, 39; in China, 98–112. See also Income inequality; Systemic inequalities in liberal meritocratic capitalism; Wage inequality Inequality extraction ratio, 246n16 Inequality in income

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of income, 233 Inventions, income convergence and, 235 “Invisible hand,” hypercommercialization and, 227–229 Iran, universal basic income in, 202 Israel, subcitizenship in, 136 Italy: assortative mating in, 240n31; corruption in, 121; displacement of native population by rich from other countries in, 186 Jacques, Martin, 122, 126, 128 Japan: growth rate in

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twenty-first century income inequality, 42–50; advantages of, 11; association of high capital and high labor income in the same individuals and, 34–36; assortative mating and, 19, 36–40; capital and labor income and, 17–18; causes of increase in inequality in, 21–23; competition with political capitalism, 10–11

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, 173, 251n20 Systemic inequalities in liberal meritocratic capitalism, 23–42; association of high capital and high labor income in same individuals, 34–36; greater homogamy (assortative mating), 36–40; greater transmission of income and wealth across generations, 40–42; high concentration of capital ownership, 26–31; higher rate of return on assets

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and labor in, 26–27, 28; purchase of residence permits in, 134, 135; share of capital as percent of national income in, 15 United States: assortative mating and increase in inequality in, 39; bifurcated system of education in, 59–62; challenging Swiss banking secrecy laws, 173; concentration of capital ownership in, 26

Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class

by Charles Murray  · 28 Jan 2020  · 741pp  · 199,502 words

fewer problematic issues.[17] Two of the assumptions are at center stage in the debate over the validity of twin studies: Humans mate randomly (no assortative mating). DZ and MZ twins experience their common environments equally, known in the literature as the equal environments assumption (EEA). The Random Mating Assumption The Falconer

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the degree that would be predicted by their shared genes, but for a reason that has nothing to do with the environment. Suppose that the assortative mating increased the observed DZ correlation to +.6. In that case, the MZ twin correlation is unchanged at 1.0, but the Falconer formula would determine

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that the value of the shared environment, C, is 2 × .6 – .6 = .6, or 60 percent, which is inflated. In the real world, assortative mating is routine. At least when it comes to marriage, people tend to marry others who are similar on a wide variety of traits. The empirical

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established for a long time, beginning with Steven Vandenberg’s review of the early literature in 1972.19 Since then, extensive additional research has documented assortative mating for education, intelligence, political affiliation, mental illness, substance abuse, aggressive behavior, and criminal behavior. Often these correlations are substantial, in the region of +.4 to

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+.5.20 The expectation must be that assortative mating leads to consistent though modest underestimates of A in the ACE model. The Equal Environments Assumption On average, parents of MZ twins treat them more

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technically, the predictive validity of the analysis will be lower for the French than it is for the British. A variant on this problem is assortative mating. Suppose that people who are heavy tea drinkers tend to mate with tall people. Over a few generations, height-increasing alleles will be statistically associated

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of these assumptions with additional references, see Verweij, Mosing, Zietsch et al. (2012) and Appendix A of Barnes, Wright, Boutwell et al. (2014). 18. Genetic assortative mating needs to be discriminated from cultural transmission, which also tends to inflate the estimate of shared environmental effects. For a discussion of the assumptions of

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the classical twin model and an empirical assessment of assortative mating for intelligence, see Vinkhuyzen, van der Sluis, Maes et al. (2012). 19. A separate issue is the genome-wide genetic similarity of mates (e.g

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., see Domingue, Fletcher, Conley et al. (2014)). Here I am reporting evidence for phenotypic assortative mating on discrete traits that are known to be substantially heritable. 20. For citations, see the literature review in Barnes, Wright, Boutwell et al. (2014): 7

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“true” A is actually closer to .488. However, we should note that these estimates do not take into account violations of other assumptions (e.g., assortative mating; the presence of evocative gene-environment correlation) that may downwardly bias heritability estimates. (Barnes, Wright, Boutwell et al. (2014): 11–12). 25. Felson (2014): 195

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. 2007. “Oxytocin Improves ‘Mind-Reading’ in Humans.” Biological Psychiatry 61: 731–33. Domingue, Benjamin W., Jason Fletcher, Dalton Conley et al. 2014. “Genetic and Educational Assortative Mating Among US Adults.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (22): 7996–8000. Donlon, Thomas F., ed. 1984. The College Board Technical Handbook for

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. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press. Vinkhuyzen, A. A., S. van der Sluis, H. H. Maes et al. 2012. “Reconsidering the Heritability of Intelligence in Adulthood: Taking Assortative Mating and Cultural Transmission into Account.” Behavior Genetics 42 (2): 187–98. Visser, Beth A., Michael C. Ashton, and Philip A. Vernon. 2006a. “Beyond g: Putting

The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention

by Simon Baron-Cohen  · 14 Aug 2020

? I was intrigued by what makes two hyper-systemizers more likely to end up as a couple. “Like marrying like” is what biologists call “assortative mating.”13 Assortative mating is widespread in nature. For example, in humans, tall people are more likely to marry tall people, extraverts are more likely to marry extraverts, and

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likely to marry alcoholics. Based on our Parents’ Occupations Study, it seemed that hyper-systemizers were more likely to marry hyper-systemizers. This fits the “assortative mating” theory of autism, which predicts that autism rates will be higher among hyper-systemizing couples’ children or grandchildren. Interestingly, this has recently been confirmed at

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the genetic level.14 There are a few ways in which assortative mating among hyper-systemizers might happen. It could be that people who share similar interests are more likely to end up living in the same location

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later, are still available and looking for a mate.15 They find each other because they’re both still single. A third possibility is that assortative mating among hyper-systemizers might be the result of two people being attracted to each other because their minds are similar.16 But how could we

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first introduced in S. Baron-Cohen (2006), “Two new theories of autism: Hyper-systemizing and assortative mating,” Archives of Diseases in Childhood 91, 2–5, and explored further in S. Baron-Cohen (2006), “The hyper-systemizing, assortative mating theory of autism,” Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 30, 865–872. 2. The term “systemizing

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on female size in a marine snail, Littorina littorea (L.),” Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 181, 145–157; A. Fargevieille et al. (2017), “Assortative mating by colored ornaments in blue tits: Space and time matter,” Ecology and Evolution 7(7), 2069–2078; G. Stulp et al. (2017

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), “Assortative mating for human height: A meta-analysis,” American Journal of Human Biology 29(1, January–February), e22917; K. Han, N. C. Weed, and J. N. Butcher (

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), “Butcher dyadic agreement on the MMPI-2,” Personality and Individual Differences 35, 603–615; and J. Glickson and H. Golan (2001), “Personality, cognitive style, and assortative mating,” Personality and Individual Differences 30, 1109–1209. 14. See S. Baron-Cohen (2006), “Two new theories of autism: Hyper-systemizing and

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assortative mating,” Archives of Diseases in Childhood 91, 2–5; S. Connolly et al. (2019), “Evidence of assortative mating in autism spectrum disorder,” Biological Psychiatry 86(4), 286–293; A. E. Nordsletten et al. (2016), “Patterns

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psychiatric disorders,” JAMA Psychiatry 73(4), 354–361; J. Wouter et al. (2016), “Exploring boundaries for the genetic consequences of assortative mating for psychiatric traits,” JAMA Psychiatry 73(11), 1189–1195. 15. Assortative mating could also explain why parents of autistic children tend to be older than average—it has just taken them longer

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), 1203–1212. Of course, this doesn’t rule out an age-related effect on the germline. 16. Note that all three of these explanations for assortative mating in autism could be correct and be happening simultaneously: hyper-systemizers of opposite sexes could be moving to the same location and find themselves in

The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene

by Richard Dawkins  · 1 Jan 1982  · 506pp  · 152,049 words

. Hamilton also noted the idea’s inherent implausibility, but he went on ‘… exactly the same a priori objections might be made to the evolution of assortative mating which manifestly has evolved, probably many times independently and despite its obscure advantages’ (Hamilton 1964b, p. 25). It is worth briefly examining this comparison with

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assortative mating, which for present purposes I shall take to mean the tendency of individuals to prefer to mate with individuals that genetically resemble them. Why is

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it that the green-beard effect seems so much more far-fetched than assortative mating? It is not just that assortative mating is positively known to occur. I suggest another reason. This is that when we think of assortative mating we implicitly assume self-inspection as a means of facilitating the effect. If black

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’ recognition are alternative ways in which genes could behave as if discriminating in favour of copies of themselves. To return to Hamilton’s comparison with assortative mating, we can see that it does not really provide good grounds for optimism over the plausibility of the green-beard effect

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. Assortative mating is much more likely to involve self-inspection. If, for whatever reason, it is an advantage in general for like to mate with like, selection

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balance between outbreeding and inbreeding (Bateson 1983) or whatever the advantage may be—regardless of the exact nature of the characteristics by which individuals differ. Assortative mating is not the only analogy Hamilton might have chosen. Another one is the case of cryptic moths choosing to sit on a background that matches

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there are (not insuperable) theoretical difficulties over how the phenomenon might evolve in the first place. assortative mating The tendency of individuals to choose mates that resemble (positive assortative mating or homogamy) or specifically do not resemble (negative assortative mating) themselves. Some people use the word only in the positive sense. autosome A chromosome that is

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, 162 ‘winning’, 61, 64–67, 69, 71, 75 artefacts, animal, 196, 197–208, 247 genetics of, 207 artificial intelligence, 16 asexual organisms, not replicators, 97 assortative mating, 145–147 atmosphere, origin of, 235 atoms, 112–114 auditory drug, 62–63 backwards view of evolution, 93–95, 254, 257 bacteria crown gall, 218

The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite

by Daniel Markovits  · 14 Sep 2019  · 976pp  · 235,576 words

in markedly more auspicious circumstances than middle-class children enjoy. The elite increasingly marry each other—a practice that economists have given the ugly name assortative mating. Assortative mating had been common during the last decades of the nineteenth century, among the aristocracy in the Gilded Age, but then declined over the first half

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. But even if innocently brokered, these marriages, taken all together, enormously concentrate the elite, both within a generational cohort and especially down through the generations. Assortative mating increases economic inequality within the marrying cohort, operating literally as a multiplier for the already growing inequality produced by rising top labor incomes. If marriage

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pair off, marriage ceases to be neutral. Replacing today’s actual pattern of assortative mating with random pairings, or indeed with the lower level of assortative mating from 1960, would reduce overall inequality by a fifth or more. In addition, assortative mating increases educational inequality in the next generation down. Elites do not just increasingly marry

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from Inter-generational Social Mobility Data,” Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science 663 (January 2016): 117–39, and Robert D. Mare, “Educational Assortative Mating in Two Generations: Trends and Patterns Across Two Gilded Ages,” California Center for Population Research On-Line Working Paper Series, January 12, 2013, http://papers

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couples in 1960 and in 27.7 percent of married couples in 2000. over 5 percent in 2005: Jeremy Greenwood et al., “Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality,” American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings) 104 (May 2014): 348, 350. Hereafter cited as Greenwood et al., “Marry Your Like.” More generally

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Your Like,” 352. This effect operates, in significant part, through rising female labor force participation, especially among better-educated women. As educated women increasingly work, assortative mating increasingly compounds household income inequality, and random mating would increasingly reduce household income inequality. less educated counterparts: They also bear children later in life: mothers

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as virtuous, 262–64, 268 wealth as emancipatory under, 36, 37, 41, 193–94 Aristotle, 262, 263 asset management services, 236 See also finance industry assortative mating, 116–17 athletes, 43, 84 AT&T, 173 auto industry, 20–21, 22, 23 bankers’ hours, 10, 81, 82 banking. See finance industry Bell Labs

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–51, 189, 276, 311tab, 312 precarious nature of, xv, 35, 115–16, 262 elite education, 5 under aristocracy, 6, 7, 17, 111–12, 114 and assortative mating, 117 author as product of, x–xi burdens of, xvii–xviii, 32, 34, 41–42, 152 competitive admissions, 6–7, 17, 33, 34, 122–23

Head, Hand, Heart: Why Intelligence Is Over-Rewarded, Manual Workers Matter, and Caregivers Deserve More Respect

by David Goodhart  · 7 Sep 2020  · 463pp  · 115,103 words

levels of cognitive selection into higher education and the higher professions has helped to shape a cognitive class over the past seventy years, reinforced by “assortative mating,” in which like increasingly attracts like in marriage and partnering. Bright men and women were attracted to each in the past, too, but fifty years

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minister, argued in his book The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future—and Why They Should Give It Back that such assortative mating has contributed to a slowing of social mobility. “If advantage marries advantage then we must not be surprised if social mobility suffers… [I]ncreasing equality

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of genetic shuffling. Regression to the mean—meaning clever parents will sometimes have average children—still operates even if it has been slowed somewhat by assortative mating and educational investment. Overall, the evidence for the emergence of a hereditary cognitive meritocracy remains tentative and is contested. For example, Andrew Hacker, a teacher

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of “genotocracy.” Conley and Fletcher look at whether genetic traits relating to intelligence have become more heritable over the course of the twentieth century as assortative mating has increased. In 1960, 32 percent of men with college bachelor’s degrees married women with degrees; in 2000, 65 percent did. But they conclude

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, 270, 272–73, 298 Arum, Richard, Academically Adrift (with Roksa), 123, 129 Ashton, David, The Global Auction (with Brown and Lauder), 23, 144, 258–60 assortative mating, 79–83 Atlas Respite and Therapy (UK), 238–39 Attenborough, David, Blue Planet, 280 Austen, Jane, 184 Austria, 24, 98, 99, 213 Autor, David H

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, Hillary, 152, 215 Cobb, Jonathan, The Hidden Injuries of Class (with Sennett), 190 Coe, Robert, 124 Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT), 65 cognitive aptitude, 55–89 assortative mating and, 79–83 behavioral genetics movement and, 72–75, 83, 86, 88 “cognitive elite” and, 78–79 correlation with socioeconomic status, 78–82, 83–84

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, 75–84, 87–88, see also cognitive class social mobility and, 75–84 wisdom and, 283, 302–3 see also intelligence cognitive class, 31–53 assortative mating and, 79–83 cognitive elite (Herrnstein and Murray), 78–79 cognitive entrepreneurs and, 33 creative class cohort, 28, 223–25, 256–58, 270, 299 economic

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, 73 European Union (EU): popularity of, 167 see also Brexit Britain and names of specific countries EY, 271 Facebook, xiii, 16, 33, 273 family background: assortative mating and, 79–83 cognitive class and, 48, 115, 118, 125–26, 156 family breakdown and, 220, 221–25, 292–93 meritocracy vs., 6–9, 41

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, 277–78, 284–301 of the university, 298 Gabbard, Keith, 290 Galton, Francis, 74n Gardner, Howard, 67 Gates, Bill, 33 gender: androgyny and, 223–24 assortative mating and, 79–83 cognitive class and, 32–33 Covid-19 crisis and, xii domesticity and, 27, 32–33, 226–32, 242–43, 293 feminism and

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giants and, xiii, 16, 33, 273 mental well-being and, 37, 278–81 social mobility, 75–84 Anywhere-Somewhere divide and, 13–20, 287–91 assortative mating and, 79–83 in class stratified societies, 34–35 college/university education and, 6, 103, 105, 125–31, 253–55, 268–71 downward vs. upward

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