Assortative Mating

Abstract

This paper lists marital correlations for 105 physical characteristics in 40 human population samples. Correlation coefficients in the range + 0.1 to 0.2 are most frequently observed for measurements of body size in Europeans and Americans of European descent, although coefficients in the range +0.2 to 0.3 are commonly found. Homogamy coefficients above 0.5 are rare, at least in European peoples. The degree of assortative mating with respect to physical characteristics varies by economic and social class within European national and ethnic groups. There is some tendency toward higher marital associations for physical characteristics among populations in the Mediterranean region than among those in Northern and Western Europe. Studies of assortative mating in non‐European populations are few. The two populations sampled, Navaho Indians and Japanese, do not practice homogamy for body size.