Mate choice, marital success, and reproduction in a modern society

Abstract

A series of eight predictions concerning human mating was tested on interviews with 1057 female and 774 male Hungarians, who were close to completed fertility. Mating preferences as predicted from the evolutionary explanations are reflected in actual mate choice. Males, more than females, prefer and choose younger mates at marriage, whereas females tend to marry higher educated mates. The reproductive consequences of mate choice are adaptive: females who marry higher status mates and males who choose younger mates have significantly more surviving children than those following alternative mating strategies. This link between mating preferences and reproductive output may be mediated by marital success as a proximate mechanism. Couples whose wives are younger and/or less educated and whose husbands are older and/or more educated stay together for a longer period of time than other couples. Similarly, the age and educational differences between spouses are associated with marriage quality. Finally, homogamy is found as a widespread form of mate choice that proved to be almost as reproductively successful a strategy as hypergamy. We argue that females switch between homogamy and hypergamy and vice versa, depending on the particular social circumstance.