The effect of personal attributes and mate preference on marriage and relationship an experimental investigation

The Effect of Personal Attributes and Mate Preference on Relationship and Marriage: An Experimental Investigation ZHANG MAN (Bachelor of Economics, Nankai University) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (BY RESEARCH) DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2013 Declaration This thesis work is the original work of Zhang Man, Performed independently under the guidance of Prof. Zhang Jie (supervisor), Economics Department, FASS, National University of Singapore, from May 2012 to Aug 2013. Zhang Man Zhang Man 07/08/2013 Full Name Signature Date 1 Acknowledgments This thesis is like a souvenir signifying the end of my school life, and I am very grateful to many people during my study journey at NUS. First of all, I would like to deeply appreciate my supervisor, Prof. Jie Zhang, for his invaluable guidance throughout my research process, if without his continuous encouragement this thesis might not be completed. And then, sincerely thanks the co-chairs and other committee members for their presence and helpful comments to my thesis. Additionally, I gratefully acknowledge to all the teachers and classmates who taught me and helped me in these years, and have to say I like all of you from my heart! Moreover, I should give many thanks to the administrative managers and staffs in our Economics Department of FASS for their kind assistances. Last but not least, thank you, mother and father. Thanks for emotional and financial support all the time. I will try to make me better and better because I am definitely sure that you always deserve a better daughter. Love you, ma and pa. At this moment, any words fail to express my heartfelt gratitude to ‘the big family and families’ of our Economics Department in FASS of NUS, but I still want to say that thank you for gifting into my school life such a precious memory. 2 Table of Contents Pages Declaration..................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ 2 Table of Contents........................................................................................................... 3 Summary........................................................................................................................ 3 List of Tables..................................................................................................................5 List of Figures................................................................................................................ 5 Sections: 1. Introduction.................................................................................................................6 1.1 Justification of Research....................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Objectives of Research......................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Research Background......................................................................................................... 10 2. Precondition of Research......................................................................................... 14 3. Modeling and Algorithm..........................................................................................17 3.1 Modeling............................................................................................................................. 17 3.2 Matching Algorithm............................................................................................................21 4. Experimental Investigation...................................................................................... 24 4.1 Individual Information Gathering.......................................................................................24 4.2 Results and Analysis........................................................................................................... 27 5. Conclusion................................................................................................................33 Reference......................................................................................................................34 3 Summary Using data from the individual investigation and Speed Dating Experiment via Gale-Shapley Algorithm, we study the relation between personal attributes and mate preference, and shed light on their effect on mate selection and relationship satisfaction. The design of our investigation and experiment can allow us to observe both the selection decision and matching results. The relationships and marriages of the couples who were assorted for age, appearance and character were shown more stable and happier. Furthermore, the most stable and happiest matches are more probably based on the similarity of personal character. Thus, personal attributes and mate preference interact with each other by the three main similarities during the process of mate selection. The effect of personal attributes and mate preference on romantic and marital relationship is significant. 4 List of Tables Table 1.1 Comparison of Matching Model Simulations……………………………..11 Table 2.1 The Relationship and Marriage Investigation in Five Cities* of China…...13 Table 2.2 The Relationship and Marriage Investigation in Rural Area of China…….14 Table 2.3 The Relationship and Marriage Investigation during 2000-2004 in China..14 Table 4.1 Cross-individual Correlations for Personal Attributes Sample Group: Married & Dating………………………………………....26 Table 4.2 Cross-individual Correlations for Personal Attributes Sample Group: Experimental Matching…………………………………...28 Table 4.3 Rating on Matching Stability and Happiness in Average………………….30 List of Figures Figure 3.1 An Unstable Matching Assignment………………………………………20 Figure 3.2 A Stable Matching Reassignment (Optimal Solution)……………………20 Figure 3.3 Three Rounds Stable Solution of Matching Assignment…………………22 5 1. Introduction This research attempts to shed light on the relation between mate selection and two main factors: one is personal attributes and another is mate preference, and to further our understanding about why individuals accept and reject romantic or marital relationships and how to ensure the stability and happiness in relationships. The whole thesis is composed of six sections. Section 1 introduces the justification, objective and background of this research. Sections 2 and 3 provide the preconditions and algorithm to support the following experimental investigation in Section 4. Additionally, Section 4 lists and analyzes the experimental results for establishing evident basis for the explanation and guidance on individual relationships through correlation analysis in the following Section 5. At last, Section 6 presents the concluding remarks. 1.1 Justification of Research At any point of time in human society, most of individuals will experience or are experiencing or experienced their own marriages in their limited lifetime. It has really long been the goal of social scientists to better know why individuals accept and reject a romantic or marital proposal. Simply through this statement, we can be aware of the consequence of marriage and its impact on both individuals and society at large. Thus, the first reason of this research is directly and briefly embodied in the marriage importance which is indicated on its individual effect and society effect. 6 Additionally, by a common-sense view about the marriage that is most of individuals do not want to just be married but desire a relatively stable and happy marital relationship with their partner in a long-term, it would be reasonable to assume that individuals like making their marriage decisions by happiness and stability most at least. In other words, they must be keeping the best interests of their mates and themselves during making the marriage decision. To some extent, it cannot be too much saying that a happy and stable marriage is far more significant than anything else in determining personal well-being (David Brooks, 2010). Thus, exploring how to make sure of the marital happiness and stability would benefit most individuals; it is also the key point of the research. In the view of Economics and Law, the points of marital happiness can be based on three points. The first one is the compatibility of supply and demand with the emotional feelings between wife and husband; the second point is the satisfaction of rights and duties in their current marriage; the last one is the expectation for their future marriage. In this thesis work, the further experimental design is based on these three points to evaluate the marital happiness and stability. However, as supposed that the happiness of marriage can be evaluated, an optimal marriage may not be only decided by the maximization of marital happiness in fact, because marriage is multi-angle and multi-dimensional. For instance, parents and friends tend to be involved in one’s mate choice even marriage, so that they must be willing to make some suggestions on one’s relationship and even marriage in their view. In a way, it can cause a kind of information asymmetry from multi-angle views. 7 And, the other factors, such as individual preferences for the mate selection, will pose different emphases of a relationship or marriage. To simplify the complexity and reduce the multi-angle and multi-dimensional interferences, we are going to introduce several rating questionnaires and speed dating experiments for gathering individual information in this study, and then use the results to do the analogy analysis on the individual relationship and marriage. It would be an essential part of this research. 1.2 Objectives of Research As the historical records of anthropology, the complexity of marital relationship subject was established as early as the word ‘mariage’ in Middle English first appeared. In The Future of Marriage in Western Civilization (1936), Edvard Westermarck defined Marriage as a relation of one or more men to one or more women that is recognized by custom or law. According to the marriage definition in Notes and Queries, Kathleen Gough (1959) modified the definition as a union between a woman and one or more other persons such that children corn to the woman are the recognized legitimate offspring of both partners. However, the other anthropologists such as Duran Bell (1997) then criticized this legitimacy-based definition of marriage. Definitely, marriage is a very complicated study subject. The enormous argument and criticism over marriage definition is still circulated in academic circles all these years. And, it seems like no one can tell what exactly the marriage is because of its complicacy, though lots of famous scientists indeed do great 8 contribution to marriage research. Thus, here for a reasonable simplification in analyzing the complicated subject, this paper intends to observe the notable factors in a marriage and detect significant internal and external effects on the marriage market through experimental investigation and correlation analysis, and then on this basis examine the causal effect of personal attributes and mate preference on the mate selection behavior by simulated experiments (Speed Dating Experiments). In the view of economics, the experiments would be focused on spanning a variety of main aspects of marital and romantic relationship and estimate their effect on the matching in a dynamic duration. Thereby, we are able to provide a relatively comprehensive evidence and guidance on how to use personal attributes and mate preference in combination to get more happiness, stability and satisfaction from a marital or romantic relationship. The main purpose of this research is to collect relatively accurate and sufficient personal information from 31 pairs of married couples and 48 dating couples and 50 young singles, and investigate the impact of personal attributes and mate preference on their current relationships. It would be expected that the experimental data and the tractable dating and matching results, to some extent, can accurately illustrate the corresponding relations among personal attributes, mate preference and the quality of matching which is evaluated by stability and happiness. Moreover, the research result is expected to be significant and persuasive to clearly explain the effect of attributes and preference on mate selection, and provide a good guidance to make more satisfaction on a romantic or marital relationship for more individuals. 9 1.3 Research Background Gary S. Becker (1973 and 1974, summarized in 1991) applied the economic approach to analyze the most sensitive and fateful individual decisions, such as choosing a spouse in matching process, and exposited the transferable utility model of the marriage market, a benchmark model at present. Since Becker’s path breaking research on marriage, many economists have estimated this benchmark model of marriage and systematically studied the clear condition of marriage markets. However, there are relatively fewer studies on individual mate selection and marriage decision making in the well-known documents of marriage economics. The most relevant literatures among the rare records would be Gillian Hamilton and Aloysius Siow (2001) that estimated the contributions of social heterogeneity and assortative matching, examined the frictions to aggregate marriage behavior by analyzing the data of Quebec in the 18th century. They found that a simple random matching model of the marriage market, in which there are gains to assortative matching and women may leave the marriage market at a higher rate than men, can explain the data of Quebec. Moreover, their estimates suggest that women fared slightly better than men in the impact of differential fecundity on the welfare. Eugene Choo and Aloysius Siow (2003) estimated the transferable utility model which rationalizes the standard interpretation of marriage rate regressions in marriage market. They resolved two problems early in preliminary study: One was an observation problem in equilibrium transfers which are seldom observed in modern marriages. The other was an individual identification problem in the wide marriage market, 10 which would be further discussed in detail later. However, unlike in the Choo and Siow (2003), the types of women and men should be identified respectively by their personal attributes and mate preferences in this research work. For a more accurate individual identification, the Personal Code Test referring to the Taylor Hartman Theory (2007), and the Multiple Speed Dating Experiments referring to the Five Factors in Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction (M. D. Botwin, 1997), should be introduced into our research, because these two investigations would be used to evaluate both impacts of personal attributes and mate preferences on the mate choices. Additionally, the personal code can be adequately shown by individual characteristics to some extent. The personal characteristics figure prominently in unstructured nomination of what individuals want in a mate (Langhorne and Secord, 1955). Furthermore, personal traits would be able to make individuals structuring and designing instruments to assess mate preferences (Buss and Barnes, 1986; McGinnis, 1958). For instance, both women and men state clearly that they want a mate in their rest of life, who are more likely to be dependable, sociable, kind, understanding, stable, and intelligent enough to realize their own mate preference, such as physical appearance, economic resources, education background, etc. (Botwin et al., 1997). Preparing for a good experimental simulation of the relationship interrelation, we viewed the DYNASIM model, which originally developed by Urban Institute (www.urbaninstitude.org) and then successively renovated by Zedlewski in 1990 and Favreault & Smith in 2004. The comparison of results about several matching model simulations is shown in Table 1.1, from which we can extract some useful information 11 for our following experimental investigation and trackable simulation. Table 1.1 - Comparison of Matching Model Simulations Model Year and Reference Matching Variables DYNASIM Zedlewski, Age Difference, Education Difference 1990 Matching Process: Singles randomized. First pair evaluated using exponential probability function. Paired if random number less than probability, otherwise repeat for up to 10 potential partners. If no matches, then pair those with highest probability. SAGE Cheesbrough & Scott, Age, Education, Marital Status, Pregnant 2003 Matching Process: Monte Carlo simulation comparing transition probabilities based on logistic regression models using retrospective partnership histories from survey. APPSIM Bacon & Pennec, Age Difference, Education Difference 2007 Matching Process: Similar to DYNASIM. Singles randomized. First pair evaluated using exponential probability function. Paired if random number less than probability, otherwise repeat for up to 10 potential partners. If no matches are made and the total number of couples has not been met, then pair those with highest probability. Source: jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/16/1/6.html 12 As illustrated in this table, the matching algorithm of the DYNASIM model is mainly based on two individual differences, the age difference and education difference. Unlike in the DYNASIM model (Zedlewski 1990), we intend to put more personal attributes which can be identified into our further investigation and simulation. In short, prior studies indeed provide valuable evidence on the matching model of marriage, the behavioral difference with different gender in marriage market, personal traits, and mate preference. However, most of prior studies emphases on the mathematical modeling and computing simulation. No prior study has undertaken a systematic research on how to provide individuals with a clear and practical guidance to make a successful marital or romantic relationship, through individual investigation and the vector analysis of personal attributes and mate preference. Therefore, this empirical study attempts to fill the gap among the previous literature. 13 2. Precondition of Research Love is an eternal theme, especially when the topic discussed is the Marriage. For most people, it has to be admitted that love can lead to a marriage. And, the initial cause of love must be a kind of chemical reaction motivated between female and male, called attraction. Certainly, there are some other special cases, such as arranged marriage, also leading to a marital relationship. However, in the modern age, more and more people can intuitively find that there are fewer and fewer parents select the person whom their children should marry. Here, it is necessary to provide some evidence for this intuition. According to the data from several relationship and marriage sample investigations, it is obvious that a dramatic decline exists in the number of arranged marriage while the number of free-love marriage is continuously increasing in both urban area and rural area. The details are clearly shown in Table 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. Table 2.1 - The Relationship and Marriage Investigation in Five Cities* of China Sample Size: 4858 Couples Proportion Types Free-love Marriage (100%) Arranged marriage (100%) Before 1937 1937 – 1967 1967 – 1997 After 1997 4.99% 32.98% 62.03% null 54.72% 44.34% 0.94% null Source: Family Survey in Main Five Cities, Liu Ying, Chinese Family and Marriage Study [M]. Beijing: Social Science Reference Press, 1987. 14 Table 2.2 - The Relationship and Marriage Investigation in Rural Area of China Sample Size: 2866 Couples Proportion Types Free-love Marriage (Rural Area) Arranged marriage (Rural Area) Before 1966 1967 – 1976 1977 – 1986 1987 – 1996 32.8% 37.9% 48% 56.8% 67.2% 62.1% 52% 43.2% Source: Xu Anqi, Family Investigation in Urban and Rural Area of China, Social Science Press of China, 1997, September. Table 2.3 - The Relationship and Marriage Investigation during 2000-2004 in China Types Proportion (100%) Free-love Marriage (Average) Arranged marriage (Average) 85.6% 14.4% Source: Zhang Shouzhi, Marriage Database of China [N], Health and Lives Report, Shanghai Social Science Research Institution, 2004. Logically, we may easily reach a prevailing view that free-love marriage has already almost replaced the arranged marriage at present because of love, the primordial nature of marriage. Therefore, ‘Free-love Marriage’, which can imply the freedom to choose one’s spouse, is obviously the first precondition in this experimental research. Next, the second precondition should be that some people can be realistic and have clear awareness of themselves and others. In accordance with this premise, participants in the individual experiment would be divided into different groups in the 15 same processing period. That would be also referring to individual mate preference and marital decision-making. Actually, in the process of mate selection both women and men can show their personal attributes to the others. In the meanwhile, they would express affection to the ideal candidate with considering their mate preference, so-called ‘Rational Behavior’, or without considering their mate preference, so-called ‘Irrational Behavior’ here, due to their own personality. Since the process of mate selection is a two-way choice under the free-love condition, the second premise regarding awareness of own attributes and mate preference is an important element in the experiment. However, a good research result may not be achieved through the experimental investigation just with the two preconditions yet. How to ensure the marital possibility and feasibility is still a difficult problem to the experimental design and control at present, especially when previous theory or hypothesis condition is not sufficient. Thus, the Marriage Possibility Index should be innovative to introduce as the third precondition into the following study. 16 3. Modeling and Algorithm 3.1 Modeling According to the purpose of this research, it is needed to establish a model to simulate the interaction process in individual relationships, consequently refining the data analysis of experimental investigations. It should be two kinds of simulations because of the experimental subjects. The first one is counterfactual simulation, which will be applied to observe the married subjects; the second one is tractable simulation, which will be applied to observe both dating and single subjects. Moreover, it has to be performed under the hypotheses for the simulations, and the hypotheses should be able to shed light on the following questions initially for this research work. (1) How does it work between individuals and marriage market? (2) To understand the individual identification problem, the statistics of the female and male types would be imperative to identify the individuals in the marriage market. (3) How many personal attributes could be observed and compared in the process of mate selection? (4) What is the correlation between personal attributes and mate preference. (5) How much of distinguished features in mate preference can be put down to the individual heterogeneity or experience heterogeneity? (6) Is there any utility matching algorithm can be used to simulate the interaction during the mate selection process? (7) How can we assess the happiness in both marital relationship and romantic relationship? (8) How can we make marriage and relationship more effective, happy and health? With all the eight highlighted points, it would be a right time to start 17 setting up hypotheses and modeling systematically. In accordance with the Choo and Siow’s marriage-matching function (2006) and the other related studies by Dagsvik, et al. (2001) and Siow (2008), we can suppose that: (1) Let F and M be the population vector of female and male respectively, which is investigated as experimental subjects in this research. There are I types of female and J types of male in our sample. Let f i be the number of eligible type i female and m j be the number of eligible type j male. Additionally, let N i 0 , N 0 j and N ij be the number of unmarried type i female, the number of unmarried type j male ,and the number of type i female married to type j male, respectively. Thus, the accounting constraints should be: J Ni 0 + N N0 j + N j 1 ij I i 1 ij = fi ,  i = mj ,  j N i 0 , N 0 j , N ij  0 , i , j . (2) In a {i, j | i  I , j  J } marriage, a systematic marriage surplus,  ij , that depends on the type of marital match is generated as a total surplus of the marriage. Let  ij be the share of marriage surplus that is obtained by the wife ( Fij ), and then ij  ij is the share of marriage surplus that is obtained by the husband ( M ij ). Meanwhile, each type i female gets an idiosyncratic payoff, eFij , that depends on her specific identity and the type of spouse that she marries, not on his specific identity. Her idiosyncratic payoff does not depend on her marriage surplus (  ij ). In the same way, each type j male gets an idiosyncratic payoff, eM ij , that depends on his specific 18 identity and the type of spouse that he marries, not on her specific identity. His idiosyncratic payoff does not depend on his marriage surplus ( ij  ij ). (3) Similarly, in an {i, j | i  I , j  J } romantic relationship, a systematic relationship surplus, ij , that depends on the type of relationship match is generated as a total surplus in the romantic relationship. Let  ij be the share of romantic relationship surplus that is obtained by the girlfriend ( Fij ), and then ij  ij is the share of romantic relationship surplus that is obtained by the boyfriend ( M ij ). Meanwhile, each type i female gets an idiosyncratic payoff, eF ij , that depends on her specific identity and the type of her boyfriend, not on his specific identity; her idiosyncratic payoff also does not depend on her romantic relationship surplus (  ij ). Equally, each type j male gets an idiosyncratic payoff, eM ij , that depends on his specific identity and the type of his girlfriend, not on her specific identity; His idiosyncratic payoff also does not depend on his marriage surplus ( ij  ij ). (4) Each individual who chooses to remain single also gets a systematic unmarried surplus,  i 0 for the female or  0 j for the male, which depends on their own type, as well as an idiosyncratic payoff, ei 0 for the female or e0 j for the male, which depends on their own identity. (5) In a two-individual marriage group mk , where m is denoted as the marriage group, k is an integer and k  1 , both wife and husband utilities of female of type i who marries a male of type j should be: Fij : uijmk   ij  eFij M ij : uijmk  ij  ij  eM ij 19 Similarly, in each two-individual romantic relationship group rk , where r is denoted as a romantic relationship, k is an integer and k  1 , both girlfriend and boyfriend utilities of female of type i who match a male of type j should be: Fij : uijrk   ij  eF ij M ij : uijrk  ij  ij  eM ij If an unmarried individual chooses to remain single or break-up to become single and available, then the utility of this single individual sk should be: Fi 0 : ui 0sk   i 0  ei 0 M 0 j : u0 jsk   0 j  e0 j (6) Given the systematic surplus and idiosyncratic payoff in three different situations, by considering every potential spouse choice including keeping unmarried, we can assume on the one hand that the utility of a married individual has already established without any consideration of the individual who has been divorced, separated and widowed in this research; on the other hand, each unmarried individual would like to make an initial mate selection which can maximize their own utility rather than the utilities of both mate candidate and themselves. Unlike a commodity selection, the mate selection is not only two-way selection but also taking on both emotional nature and physical nature. Consequently, it should be introduced an efficient algorithm to analyze the process of individual mate selection in the meantime. 20 3.2 Matching Algorithm The Gale and Shapley’s algorithm is the pivotal theoretical foundation for our further experimental investigation. According to their paper work (Gale and Shapley, 1962), it is not difficult to get that: (1) The matching assignment is unstable if there are two male assigned to two female respectively, although a male prefers the female to whom the other male is assigned while the female he prefers also likes him better. An unstable matching assignment can be shown as the Figure 3.1. M 1 ( F1 , F2 )  F1 ( M 2 , M 1 ) M 2 ( F1 , F2 )  F2 ( M 1 , M 2 ) Figure 3.1 - An Unstable Matching Assignment (2) The matching assignment is optimal if there are a male and a female who prefer each other to their assigned mates, then the male and the female will be reassigned to each other, and the rest male and female will be so also. In the same way, a stable matching reassignment can be illustrated in the Figure 3.2. M 2 ( F1 , F2 )  F1 ( M 2 , M1 ) M 1 ( F1 , F2 )  F2 ( M 1 , M 2 ) Figure 3.2 – A Stable Matching Reassignment (Optimal Solution) 21 (3) For the matching assignment with more than two participants, the two theorems of Gale-Shapley algorithm should be reaffirmed in this section. Theorem 1: There always exists a stable set of marriages. Based on the first theorem, however, Gale and Shapley (2012) found that male participants would be strictly better off if they were the ones proposing. If female participants proposed, it would lead to the second theorem. Theorem 2: Every proposer is at least as well off under the deferred acceptance procedure as he would be under any other stable assignment. Through examples and solutions comparison, Gale and Shapley concluded that the male participants would be better off only when they proposed to female participants. The reason is that every male will be assigned to their first choice under the deferred acceptance procedure when these male participants have different first choices at the end of the matching assignment. It means each male participant can reach to his highest-attainable choice which is impossible for him to be better off under any other stable solutions. To indicate this more directly and clearly, it would be better to take an example of matching assignment with more than two participants as below. 22 The First Round Assignment The Second Round Assignment The Third Round Assignment Figure 3.3 – Three Rounds Stable Solution of Matching Assignment In order to get these highest-attainable choices, the optimal solution of matching assignment, the male will be always as the ones proposing in this research, which can simplify the following experimental investigation. 23 4. Experimental Investigation Based on all above preparations, the experimental investigation would be launched among 208 valid young participants, who were divided into three different groups: the group of married couples, the group of dating couples, and the group of single and available individuals. And, the three sample groups had to complete the personal information gathering separately. Moreover, this sample classification could make our further observation and analysis of how the personal attributes and mate preference affect the individual marriage and relationships more clearly and conveniently to some extent. According to the different marital statuses in the three groups, the married and dating couples were engaged in the information investigation only, while the available singles were additionally invited to our speed dating experiment on One’s Day. 4.1 Individual Information Gathering This section is mainly introducing the collection method of individual information and the test method of information validity. 4.1.1 Sample Groups As previously mentioned, three samples were used in the experimental investigation. The group of married couples. The number of participants in the first sample group was 62 young people comprising 31 pairs of married couples. All of these couples 24 were Chinese living in Singapore and Hong Kong. Additionally, it was mentionable that 8 couples (16 individuals) were students of National University of Singapore. The group of dating couples. The second sample group consisted of 96 young people comprising 48 dating couples. Most of these dating couples were Chinese undergraduates and postgraduates living in Singapore and Hong Kong. Similarly, there were 12 couples (24 individuals) from National University of Singapore. The group of single and available individuals. There were 50 young singles in the third sample group. To obtain the 50 valid data, the speed dating experiment had been done on One’s Day, November 11th 2012. All the participants of the experiments were singles students who are living in Singapore. 4.1.2 Information Collection Personal Attributes Collection. For gathering the information about personal attributes, the participants in all three groups needed to completed the Confidential Self Questionnaire firstly, which solicits the information on personal variables, such as gender, age, marital status, appearance, height, weight, education, income, family value, and personal characters. At same time, the part participants in the married and dating sample groups should have also completed the Confidential Mate Questionnaire that is required to rate their mate or dating mate on personal attribute variables: age, appearance, height, weight, education, income, family value, and personal character. Mate Preference Collection. For the information collection on mate preference, all 25 participants had to complete a parallel version of the Confidential Mate Preference Questionnaire, which was designed to assess mate preference for the same personal attribute variables. All the participants were required to rate the variables in terms, and the rate should be best corresponding to each participant preference in a potential mate. Furthermore, the available singles in the third sample group were informed of the rules of speed dating based on the Gale-Shapley algorithm, and they were requested to fill in the Confidential Mate Preference Rating Survey after meeting all the participants of this speed dating experiment. Happiness Experience. This happiness investigation was based on Confidential 8-Question Survey which focused on the eight questions as follow: (1) How do you feel about your marriage or romantic relationship? (2) Do you satisfy the right and duty distribution in your current marriage or relationship? (3) How do you feel about your spouse as someone to confide in about things that are important to you? (4) How do you feel about personal character of your mate? (5) Is there any great deal of love and affection expressed in your marriage? (6) Do you enjoy the time spent with your mate? (7) How often do you and your mate feel happy or laugh together? (8) How often do you argue with your mate? Each of the questions from (1) to (4) was asked for rating on a scale of 1 (unsatisfied) to 3 (satisfied) to 5 (extremely satisfied). Questions (5) and (6) were also rated on a 5-point scale, from 1 (extremely no) to 5 (extremely yes); and the questions (7) and (8) were requested to rate on a frequency scale of 1 (never) to 5 (all the time). 26 4.2 Results and Analysis After the data collection and instrument analysis, the following Tables 4.1 and 4.2 show the couple correlations for age, appearance, height, weight, education, income, family value, and personal character. Here, the personal character was only referring to three good traits: (1) good-tempered, (2) optimistic and (3) considerate. Later, the three traits will be denoted only as personal character in this thesis. Table 4.1 - Cross-individual Correlations for Personal Attributes Sample Group: Married & Dating Attribute Variable Married Couples Dating Couples Age 0.61*** 0.57*** Appearance 0.55*** 0.63*** Height 0.03 - 0.05 Weight -0.02 -0.03 Education (Years) 0.38** 0.46** Income 0.47*** 0.21 Family Value 0.46*** 0.19 Personal Character (Good Traits) 0.59*** 0.28 N = 21 married couples and 23 dating couples for these variables. ** p < .01 *** p < .001 27 Both married and dating couples were significantly assorted for age (0.61 and 0.57) and appearance (0.55 and 0.63). Moreover, years of education completed showed slightly strong mate similarity, 0.38 and 0.46, for the two groups respectively. However, the married and dating couples were not essentially correlated for height (0.03, -0.05) and weight (-0.02, -0.03). Comparing with the married couples, the dating couples might be originally uncorrelated for income (0.21), though there would be income similarity existed for married couples. The married couples showed more similarity on personal character (0.59) than the dating couples did. Interestingly, married couples were assorted for family value but dating couples were not. Unlike the married and dating couples, the couples in the sample group 3 will be treated as the matching outcome of speed dating experiment, and they were not only observed at the speed dating site but also interviewed by phone after six months. The two time points were denoted as t0 and t1 in this research. And now, Table 4.2 lists the matching couple correlations for the same personal attributes at t0 and t1 . 28 Table 4.2 - Cross-individual Correlations for Personal Attributes Sample Group: Experimental Matching Attribute Variable Matching Couples ( t0 ) Matching Couples ( t1 ) Age 0.45*** 0.59*** Appearance 0.67*** 0.54*** Height - 0.02 0.03 Weight - 0.01 0.01 Education (Years) 0.32** 0.31** Income 0.24 0.42*** Family Value 0.21 0.43*** Personal Character (Good Traits) 0.18 0.68*** N( t0 ):25 matching couples for these variables. N( t1 ): 7 matching couples for these variables. * p < .01 ** p < .001 According to the rule of the Gale-Shapley algorithm, a stable matching solution has been completed in our experimental dating by the single and available participants. As the table illustrated, at t0 , only age (0.45) and appearance (0.67) showed strong matching similarity. After six month, however, the matching couples were extremely strongly assorted for personal character (0.68), and more assorted for family value (0.43) and income (0.42) at t1 . The table also indicated that matching couples were always slightly correlated in their educational background and essentially 29 uncorrelated for height and weight. In addition, differences in family value, income and personal character might cause break-up, where character clashes would be more likely to lead to it. By the comparison at t0 and t1 , it may be reasonable to say that a more stable matching would be composed of three main similarities on age, appearance and personal character. Till now, this is just a logical deduction. Thus, it is necessary to continue the study on matching stability and individual happiness. 30 Table 4.3 - Rating on Matching Stability and Happiness in Average Average Rate Continuity Interval: (Low) 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 (High) Stability: Current marriage 4.1 Current dating 1.8 Current matching 4.3 Satisfaction: Personal character of your mate 4.0 Personal character of your dating mate 2.5 Personal character of your matching mate 4.7 Frequency: Feel happy or laugh together with your mate 4.2 Argue with your mate 2.1 Feel happy or laugh together with dating mate 3.7 Argue with your dating mate 3.8 Feel happy or laugh together with matching mate Argue with your matching mate 4.5 1.6 N1 = 21 married couples for these rates, N 2 = 23 dating couples for these rates, N 3 = 7 matching couples for these rates ( t1 ). According to Table 4.3, the group of dating couples was the most unstable and unhappy comparing with the groups of married and matching ( t1 ) couples. In other 31 words, the relationships of the couples who were assorted for age, appearance and personal character were shown more stable than the others who were not assorted for all the three attributes. Individuals tend to prefer mates who are similar to themselves especially on personal characters, and the most stable and happy matching must be based on the character similarity. 32 5. Conclusion In this research work, all the findings support a fact that personal attributes and mate preference play a critical role in marital and romantic relationship, especially in the process of mate selection. Individuals tend to prefer their mate having similar attributes, such as similar age, appearance and personal character. It indicates that personal attributes and mate preference interact each other through this similarity existed in the process of mate selection. In short, the effect of personal attributes and mate preference on marital and romantic relationship is significant. 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Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press. 35 [...]... couples, and the group of single and available individuals And, the three sample groups had to complete the personal information gathering separately Moreover, this sample classification could make our further observation and analysis of how the personal attributes and mate preference affect the individual marriage and relationships more clearly and conveniently to some extent According to the different... romantic relationship, especially in the process of mate selection Individuals tend to prefer their mate having similar attributes, such as similar age, appearance and personal character It indicates that personal attributes and mate preference interact each other through this similarity existed in the process of mate selection In short, the effect of personal attributes and mate preference on marital and. .. decision-making Actually, in the process of mate selection both women and men can show their personal attributes to the others In the meanwhile, they would express affection to the ideal candidate with considering their mate preference, so-called ‘Rational Behavior’, or without considering their mate preference, so-called ‘Irrational Behavior’ here, due to their own personality Since the process of mate. .. Gale, D and Shapley L.S., (1962) College Admissions and The Stablility of Marriage American Mathematical Monthly, 69, no 1: 9-15 Greenwood, J., Guner, N., and Knowles, J A., (2003) More on Marriage, Fertility, and the Distribution of Income International Economics Review Gough, E Kathleen, (1959) The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 89,... to make an initial mate selection which can maximize their own utility rather than the utilities of both mate candidate and themselves Unlike a commodity selection, the mate selection is not only two-way selection but also taking on both emotional nature and physical nature Consequently, it should be introduced an efficient algorithm to analyze the process of individual mate selection in the meantime... studied the clear condition of marriage markets However, there are relatively fewer studies on individual mate selection and marriage decision making in the well-known documents of marriage economics The most relevant literatures among the rare records would be Gillian Hamilton and Aloysius Siow (2001) that estimated the contributions of social heterogeneity and assortative matching, examined the frictions... marital relationship and romantic relationship? (8) How can we make marriage and relationship more effective, happy and health? With all the eight highlighted points, it would be a right time to start 17 setting up hypotheses and modeling systematically In accordance with the Choo and Siow’s marriage- matching function (2006) and the other related studies by Dagsvik, et al (2001) and Siow (2008), we can... education, income, family value, and personal character Mate Preference Collection For the information collection on mate preference, all 25 participants had to complete a parallel version of the Confidential Mate Preference Questionnaire, which was designed to assess mate preference for the same personal attribute variables All the participants were required to rate the variables in terms, and the rate... 813-846 Becker, Gray S., (1974) A Theory of Marriage: Part II Journal of Political Economy, 82, no.2: S11-S26 Botwin, M D., Buss, D M., and Shackelford, T K., (1997) Personality and Mate Preferences: Five Factors in Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction Journal of Personality, 65: 1 Buss, D M and Barnes, M., (1986) Preferences in human mate selection Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50: 559-570... (extremely yes); and the questions (7) and (8) were requested to rate on a frequency scale of 1 (never) to 5 (all the time) 26 4.2 Results and Analysis After the data collection and instrument analysis, the following Tables 4.1 and 4.2 show the couple correlations for age, appearance, height, weight, education, income, family value, and personal character Here, the personal character was only referring ... study the relation between personal attributes and mate preference, and shed light on their effect on mate selection and relationship satisfaction The design of our investigation and experiment can... similarities during the process of mate selection The effect of personal attributes and mate preference on romantic and marital relationship is significant List of Tables Table 1.1 Comparison of Matching... factors: one is personal attributes and another is mate preference, and to further our understanding about why individuals accept and reject romantic or marital relationships and how to ensure the