Match Makers and Deal Breakers: Analyses of Assortative Mating in Newlywed Couples

We conducted a comprehensive analysis of assortative mating (i.e., the similarity between wives and husbands on a given characteristic) in a newlywed sample. These newlyweds showed (a) strong similarity in age, religiousness, and political orientation; (b) moderate similarity in education and verbal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality 2004-10, Vol.72 (5), p.1029-1068
Main Authors: Watson, David, Klohnen, Eva C., Casillas, Alex, Nus Simms, Ericka, Haig, Jeffrey, Berry, Diane S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Affect
Assortative mating
Biological and medical sciences
Choice Behavior
Couple and family
Couples
Demography
Family Characteristics
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Marriage
Marriage - psychology
Married couples
Newly wed
Object Attachment
Personality
Personality Inventory
Personality traits
Pilot Projects
Politics
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Religion and Psychology
Sexual Behavior - psychology
Similarity bias
Social psychology
Sociology
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:We conducted a comprehensive analysis of assortative mating (i.e., the similarity between wives and husbands on a given characteristic) in a newlywed sample. These newlyweds showed (a) strong similarity in age, religiousness, and political orientation; (b) moderate similarity in education and verbal intelligence; (c) modest similarity in values; and (d) little similarity in matrix reasoning, self‐ and spouse‐rated personality, emotional experience and expression, and attachment. Further analyses established that similarity was not simply due to background variables such as age and education and reflected initial assortment (i.e., similarity at the time of marriage) rather than convergence (i.e., increasing similarity with time). Finally, marital satisfaction primarily was a function of the rater's own traits and showed little relation to spousal similarity.
ISSN:0022-3506
1467-6494
DOI:10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00289.x