Several articles on this blog have covered a wide range of physical and socioeconomic characteristics that people in various cultures search for in potential mating partners. The last article demonstrated how the stereotype “what-is-beautiful-is-good” makes us believe in many other … Continue reading
Category Archives: marital love
How Social Propinquity Leads to Love
The article explains how social propinquity and residential proximity affect our interpersonal relationships, love, and marriage. Men and women tend to like those with whom they get together frequently. In social science, this is called the “propinquity effect.” They have … Continue reading
You Fall in Love with Someone Genetically Similar to You
This article explains the surprising findings of studies which show that you are more likely to fall in love with someone who has genetic similarities to you. The Irresistible Attraction of Genetic Similarity What is more attractive to a loving … Continue reading
What’s an Ideal Age Difference in Dating?
What age of a prospective partner do you consider preferable? Would you prefer a partner of the same age as yours? Or would you prefer a partner with an age difference in dating? According to evolutionary views, men and women … Continue reading
Human Predisposition to Homogamy in Love
PDF Version. Genetic similarity and social homogamy play important roles in our interpersonal attraction and love. As I showed elsewhere, genetic resemblance between individuals predisposes them to fall in love. Partners in a couple share more genetic traits than random … Continue reading
The “Mere Exposure Effect” and Love Attraction
PDF Version. Familiarity and similarity are powerful forces in our love attraction that can be influenced by genetic predisposition, imprinting, or by the “mere exposure effect.” They all have the same psychological mechanism of prototypicality. Despite our interest in novelty, … Continue reading