Assortative mating without assortative preference

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504811112
• Publication Date: 2015-04-30T21:24:52Z
• Authors: Yu Xie; Siwei Cheng; Xiang Zhou
• Keywords: Assortative mating; Phenomenon

Significance Assortative mating, the tendency of men and women who marry to have similar social characteristics, is a commonly observed phenomenon in human societies. This study shows that assortative mating could result from structural causes independent agents’ preference, because unmarried persons newly enter marriage are systematically different those married earlier. Thus, selection, not by rational choice, but dynamics structures.