Bereczkei, T., Gyuris, P., Koves, P., & Bernath, L. (2002). Homogamy, genetic similarity, and imprinting; parental influence on mate choice preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 33(5), 677-690. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00182-9
The author showed that various research supported the idea of genetically mediated homogamy. However, several theoretical and methodological critiques argued against the genetic similarity theory. The author proposed that imprinting-like mechanisms, rather than “direct” genetic detection, are responsible for selecting similar mates as an alternative to assortative mating. The participants of the study were able to correctly match spouses to their mother-in-law at a considerably greater rate than expected by chance when they compared more than 300 facial pictures of family members and controls. Furthermore, the study revealed that the husbands’ mothers and wives had a higher degree of similarity than the husbands and their wives. According to a regression analysis, males who were repeatedly rejected by their moms as children were less likely to choose mates who physically resembled their mothers. These findings showed that sons absorb their mother’s phenotype as a template for attracting comparable partners as a result of their formative experiences.
Animal and human studies have shown that individuals choose mates partly on the basis of similarity, a tendency referred to as homogamy. Several authors have suggested that a specific innate recognition mechanism, phenotypic matching, allows the organism to detect similar others by their resemblance to itself. However, several objections have been raised to this theory on both empirical and theoretical grounds. Here, we report that homogamy in humans is attained partly by sexual imprinting on the opposite-sex parent during childhood. We hypothesized that children fashion a mental model of their opposite-sex parent’s phenotype that is used as a template for acquiring mates. To disentangle the effects of phenotypic matching and sexual imprinting, adopted daughters and their rearing families were examined. Judges found significant resemblance on facial traits between daughter’s husband and her adoptive father. Furthermore, this effect may be modified by the quality of the father–daughter relationship during childhood. Daughters who received more emotional support from their adoptive father were more likely to choose mates similar to the father than those whose father provided a less positive emotional atmosphere.