Abstract
Assortative mating, the tendency for mate selection to occur on the basis of similar traits plays an essential role in understanding the genetic variation on academic achievements and intelligence (IQ), it is also an important mechanism explaining spousal concordance. We used a subset of The Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism sample to study the mating patterns in 84 pairs of spouses from Caucasian families with their academic achievements (reading, spelling, arithmetic, vocabulary and comprehension) and IQ (verbal IQ, performance IQ and full scale IQ). Simple correlation analysis showed that 6 of these 8 traits revealed evidence of spousal correlation (P < 0.05). The first principal component (PC1) of husbands explains 73.61% for the variation in the eight variables, which has high loadings from reading, spelling, arithmetic, verbal IQ and full scale IQ while PC1 of wives explains 72.86% for the variation in the eight variables, which has high loadings from reading, spelling, verbal IQ and full scale IQ. There was highly significant positive correlation between spouses by PC1 (P < 0.0001). The new variable PC1 may be important in spousal concordance and mate selection in society and act upon achievements and intelligence levels.
Highlights
Mate selection is a major biological event and whose outcome is a substantial determinant of an individual’s return on his/her whole reproductive investment [1]
Assortative mating, the tendency for mate selection to occur on the basis of similar traits plays an essential role in understanding the genetic variation on academic achievements and intelligence (IQ), it is an important mechanism explaining spousal concordance
The present analyses provide evidence of significant spousal concordance in academic achievements and IQ measured by Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R)
Summary
Mate selection is a major biological event and whose outcome is a substantial determinant of an individual’s return on his/her whole reproductive investment [1]. Assortative mating plays an essential role on society and the individual. It will increase the population variance of a given trait and the proportion of individuals who are homozygous for the trait. Assortative mating can influence the course and outcome of marriage, in addition to determining the genetic and biological makeup and parenting of offspring [3]. Assortative mating, the tendency for mate selection to occur on the basis of similar traits plays an essential role in understanding the genetic variation on academic achievements and intelligence (IQ), it is an important mechanism explaining spousal concordance. We investigated the spousal concordance with respect to eight variables which represent the people’s academic achievements and IQ using both simple correlation analysis and multivariate analysis
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