Lovable
Collateralized Marriage
Jeanne Lafortune & Corinne Low
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, October 2023, Pages 252-291
Abstract:
Marriage rates have become increasingly stratified by homeownership. We investigate this in a household model where investments in public goods reduce future earnings and, thus, divorce risk creates inefficiencies. Access to a joint savings technology, like a house, collateralizes marriage, providing insurance to the lower-earning partner and increasing specialization, public goods, and value from marriage. We use idiosyncratic variation in housing prices to show that homeownership access indeed leads to greater specialization. The model also predicts that policies that erode the marriage contract in other ways will make wealth a more important determinant of marriage, which we confirm empirically.
The online dating effect: Where a couple meets predicts the quality of their marriage
Liesel Sharabi & Elizabeth Dorrance-Hall
Computers in Human Behavior, January 2024
Abstract:
Drawing on social ecology theory, this study compares the marriages of people who met in online dating to those who were introduced offline. A survey was administered to a sample of 923 married U.S. adults, roughly half of whom met their spouse in online dating. The results provided evidence of an online dating effect, with online daters reporting less satisfying and stable marriages than offline daters. Importantly, effect sizes were modest, and means showed marital quality was still relatively high in both groups. Effects did not vary based on individual differences, but they could be explained by external pressures (i.e., societal marginalization and geographic distance) on participants' relationships. Participants who used online dating confronted greater societal marginalization and geographic distance, which affected their disclosure and perceptions of network approval and, in turn, the satisfaction and stability of their marriages. Implications for research on online dating and marriage are discussed.
Laughter and ratings of funniness in speed-dating do not support the fitness indicator hypothesis of humour
Henry Wainwright et al.
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Individuals consistently report preferring humour in a romantic partner; but it is unclear why. The 'fitness indictor hypothesis' proposes that attraction to humour evolved because it is an indicator of genetic fitness. Studies testing predictions from this hypothesis, mostly based on stated preferences regarding a hypothetical ideal partner or on artificial tasks or scenarios, have so far yielded conflicting evidence. Here, we assessed a sample of 554 participants' (291 women) stated preferences for various traits including humour production and receptiveness, and their revealed preferences for the same traits through speed dates (i.e. a naturalistic, face-to-face setting). Dates were audio-recorded for a subset of 350 participants (188 women), enabling additional assessment of revealed preferences based on an objective measure of humour in the form of laughter frequency. We tested the predictions that 1) humour is an attractive trait, and 2) men are more attracted to humour receptivity compared to women, and women are more attracted to humour production compared to men. Stated preferences from men and women largely replicated those found in the existing literature and are consistent with the fitness indicator hypothesis. Results from revealed preferences found a main effect of funniness on ratings of overall partner attractiveness, but there was no significant effect of laughter on attractiveness. Revealed preferences, using both funniness ratings and laughter, also found no main effect of humour receptivity on overall attractiveness. Finally, we observed no sex differences in the effects of humour production and humour receptivity, as measured by both funniness ratings and laughter, on ratings of overall attractiveness.
Eye color is more important than skin color for clothing color aesthetics
David Perrett
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, forthcoming
Abstract:
Fashion advice for clothing color is most often based on the wearer's skin color, though hair and eye color are also considered. More saturated, warm (e.g., orange-red) colors have been found to be judged more aesthetic for White women with a relatively tanned (high melanin) skin complexion than for those with a relatively light complexion. Melanin levels in the skin, hair, and iris are correlated but the relative importance of these features for aesthetic judgments of clothing is unclear. I first replicated the preference for warm garment color for women with a darker complexion (Experiment 1 Task A). I then tested the relative importance of skin, eye, and hair color by transforming skin color between low- and high-melanin levels (Experiment 1 Task A) and by transplanting eyes between facial images (Experiment 2). Results revealed a dominant role of iris color with warmer, more saturated, and darker clothing colors being chosen for faces with darker eyes. Skin color had little influence. Even when participants were instructed to match clothing to skin color, they used eye color as a basis for clothing color choice. The results indicate that the emphasis on skin color for personal clothing color choice may be misplaced.
Distinctiveness and femininity, rather than symmetry and masculinity, affect facial attractiveness across the world
Karel Kleisner et al.
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Studies investigating facial attractiveness in humans have frequently been limited to studying the effect of individual morphological factors in isolation from other facial shape components in the same population. In this study, we go beyond this approach by focusing on multiple components and populations while combining geometric morphometrics of 72 standardized frontal facial landmarks and a Bayesian statistical framework. We investigate preferences in both sexes for three structural components of other sex facial beauty that are traditionally considered indicators of biological quality: symmetry, sexual dimorphism, and distinctiveness (i.e., the opposite of averageness). Based on a large sample of faces (n = 1550) from 10 populations across the world (Brazil, Cameroon, Czechia, Colombia, India, Namibia, Romania, Turkey, UK, and Vietnam), we found that distinctiveness negatively affects the perception of attractiveness in both sexes and that this association is stable across all studied populations. We corroborated some previous results indicating both a positive effect of femininity on male assessment of female facial beauty and a null or weak effect of masculinity on female evaluation of male facial attractiveness. Facial symmetry had no effect on facial attractiveness. In concert with other recent studies, our results support the importance of facial prototypicality but cast doubt on the role of symmetry as one of the key constituents of attractiveness in the human face.
Off with her hair: Intrasexually competitive women advise other women to cut off more hair
Danielle Sulikowski et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, January 2024
Abstract:
Intrasexual competition between women is often covert, and targets rivals' appearance. Here we investigate appearance advice as a vector for female intrasexual competition. Across two studies (N = 192, N = 258) women indicated how much hair they would recommend hypothetical clients have cut off in their hypothetical salon. Clients varied in their facial attractiveness (depicted pictorially), the condition of their hair, and how much hair they wished to have cut off. Participants also provided self-report measures of their own mate value and intrasexual competitiveness. In both studies, participants' intrasexual competitiveness positively predicted how much hair they recommended clients have cut off, especially when the hair was in good condition and the clients reported wanting as little as possible cut off - circumstances wherein cutting off too much hair is most likely to indicate sabotage. Considering data across both collectively, women tended to recommend cutting the most hair off clients they perceived to be as attractive as themselves. These data suggest that just like mating, intrasexual competition may be assortative with respect to mate value. They also demonstrate that competitive motives can impact female-female interactions even in scenarios which feature no prospective mates, and are nominally unrelated to mate guarding or mating competition.