Humans
In humans, assortative mating occurs along many dimensions, including religious beliefs, physical traits, age, socioeconomic status, intelligence, and political ideology, among others.
An experiment published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior had test subjects choose their preferred image out of three with one image modified to resemble the test subject, another a non-resembling attractive face, and a face more attractive than the resembling face, as determined by an outside group. The study found that male subjects preferred the female faces that resembled their own, while females did not prefer the male faces that looked like their own. Furthermore, both males and females rated the most attractive faces highly, as attractiveness may signal genetic quality.
In a 2011 study from the University of Vienna, researchers found that marriages between men and women with equivalent levels of education were less likely to suffer from reproductive failure, or childlessness. Though the study found no difference in the mean number of children in marriage between couples with similar and different levels of education, individuals with similar levels of education also had a lower than average age at first marriage.
Controversially, some have suggested assortative mating may play a role in the number of children diagnosed with autism. Autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen is studying the prevalence of autism in children born to Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates. The research aims to see if there is a correlation between assortative mating in high functioning MIT graduates, who may fall on the autism spectrum, and rates of autism in their children. Baron-Cohen has found a correlation between rates of autism in regions of the Netherlands where a high concentration of people work in IT and engineering.
Read more about this topic: Assortative Mating
Famous quotes containing the word humans:
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)
“To not be afraid in our world is the message that doesn’t derive from reason, but maybe from this mysterious capacity given to humans which we call—not without a little embarrassment—faith.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“As humans have a prior right to existence over dogs by virtue of being more highly evolved and having a superior consciousness, so women have a prior right to existence over men. The elimination of any male is, therefore, a righteous and good act, an act highly beneficial to women as well as an act of mercy.”
—Valerie Solanas (b. 1940)