General Partnership
Cohort Size and the Marriage Market: Explaining Nearly a Century of Changes in U.S. Marriage Rates
Mary Ann Bronson & Maurizio Mazzocco
Journal of Labor Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We document that the U.S. marriage market is characterized by two systematic empirical patterns. First, there is a quantitatively large, strong and persistent negative relationship between changes in cohort size and marriage rates of women. Second, the same negative correlation holds for men. We then establish the features a model should possess to generate these patterns. A standard matching model with search frictions is rejected by the data because it produces a negative relationship for women, but a positive relationship for men. We generalize the standard model to show under what conditions it rationalizes both patterns.
Parental Income and the Sexual Behavior of Their Adult Children: A Trivers–Willard Perspective
John Manning, Bernhard Fink & Robert Trivers
Evolutionary Psychology, December 2022
Abstract:
Parental income is negatively and linearly related to the digit ratio (2D:4D; a proxy for prenatal sex steroids) of their children. Children of parents with high income are thought to be exposed to higher prenatal testosterone and develop lower 2D:4D. It is further hypothesized that 2D:4D relates to sexual orientation, although it is unclear whether the association is linear or curvilinear. Here, we consider patterns of parental income and its association with the sexual behavior of their adult children in a large online study (the BBC internet study). There were curvilinear relationships with parental income in male and female children. The highest frequencies of homosexuality and bisexuality were found in the lowest income group (bottom 25% of the population), the lowest frequencies in the income group representing the upper 50% of the population, and intermediate values in the other groups (low 50% and top 25% of the population). Parental income showed a U-shaped association with scores for same-sex attraction and an inverted U-shaped association with opposite-sex attraction. Thus, for the first time, we show that same-sex attraction is related to parental income. The curvilinear relationship between parental income and sexual behavior in their adult children may result from an association between very high fetal estrogen or testosterone and attraction to partners of the same sex. Among non-heterosexuals, and in both sexes, very high fetal estrogen may be associated with femme or submissive sexual roles, and very high fetal testosterone with butch and assertive sexual roles.
Handsome or Rugged? A Speed-Dating Study of Ovulatory Shifts in Women’s Preferences for Masculinity in Men
Karen Wu, Chuansheng Chen & Zhaoxia Yu
Human Nature, December 2022, Pages 380–399
Abstract:
We tested the good genes ovulatory shift hypothesis through speed-dating, an ecologically valid paradigm with real life consequences. Fifteen speed-dating sessions of 262 single Asian Americans were held. We analyzed 850 speed-dates involving 132 men and 100 normally ovulating women, finding ovulatory shifts in the desirability of men with more masculine facial measurements (smaller eye–mouth–eye angle, larger lower face to full face height ratio, and smaller facial width to lower face height ratio) in the predicted direction. However, there was no support for ovulatory shifts in preferences for men’s self-reported height. In addition, the expected shifts were not found for women’s second date offers to men. Therefore, with natural stimuli and in a competitive dating scenario, we partially replicated previously documented ovulatory shifts in women’s preferences for men.
Lordosis in humans: Women's accurate perceptions of men's context-dependent preferences
Jessica Ranson et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Semchenko and colleagues (in press) recently disentangled two evolutionary hypotheses and demonstrated that heterosexual men have mate preferences for both the morphological cue of women's lumbar curvature and the behavioral cue of back arching: Men are attracted to an intermediate degree of lumbar curvature in both short-term and long-term mating contexts, and, independent of this preference, are attracted to lordosis behavior in short-term, but not long-term, mating contexts. No research to date has investigated whether women are aware of these preferences. There are a priori reasons to expect this to be the case: An awareness of these preferences could functionally guide both appearance-enhancement and intrasexual competition strategies. Here, we tested whether women have accurate perceptions of men's preferences in the lumbar region. Across two studies (Ns = 177, 293), we found that women's perceptions align precisely with men's preferences: Women perceive men to be attracted to cues to lordosis behavior in short-term but not long-term contexts, and to be attracted to an intermediate angle of lumbar curvature independent of mating context. We hope these findings, which document previously unknown features of women's mating psychology, inspire investigations into how women might adaptively use their accurate perceptions of men's mate preferences.
The Effect of Marital Name Choices on Heterosexual Women’s and Men’s Perceived Quality as Romantic Partners
Kristin Kelley
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, January 2023
Abstract:
Are women and men judged for breaking gender norms in the context of heterosexual marriage? Using the case of marital name choice, the author compared the effect of gender-conventional choices (woman takes man’s surname) to gender-egalitarian choices (both partners keep or hyphenate their surnames) on the perceived quality of heterosexual women and men as romantic partners. Relying on a survey experiment (n = 501), the author found that U.S. respondents perceived women who kept their surnames and women who shared hyphenated surnames with their husbands to be less committed and loving and to conform less to respondents’ image of the ideal wife than women who changed their names. These results show that gender-norm violations, not preferences for a shared spousal surname, explain the marital name penalty. Men in norm-breaking couples were also judged, albeit not as harshly as women, suggesting that there are contexts in which women are granted less gender flexibility than men.