ReviewBiology letters2021
Why do we pick similar mates, or do we?
Review in Biology letters, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Parental haplotype reconstruction in up to 440,209 UK and Estonian individuals reveals recent assortative mating dynamics.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Beyond Comorbidity: Evolutionary Insights Into the Concomitance of Neurodivergence, Major Depressive Disorder, and Anxiety Disorders.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Assortative Mating Is a Natural Consequence of Heritable Variation in Preferences and Preferred Traits.Psychological science · 2025Article
- [Spousal correlations of blood lipid based on a family design].Beijing da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Peking University. Health sciences · 2025Article
- We're in This Together: A Case Study of the Concurrent Delivery of Prolonged Exposure Therapy to Intimate Partners With PTSD.Cognitive and behavioral practice · 2024Article
- Assortative mating and parental genetic relatedness contribute to the pathogenicity of variably expressive variants.American journal of human genetics · 2023Article
- Article
- A genetic and linguistic analysis of the admixture histories of the islands of Cabo Verde.eLife · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans often mate with those resembling themselves, a phenomenon described as positive assortative mating (PAM). The causes of this attract broad interest, but there is little agreement on the topic. This may be because empirical studies and reviews sometimes focus on just a few explanations, often based on disciplinary conventions. This review presents an interdisciplinary conceptual framework on the causes of PAM in humans, drawing on human and non-human biology, the social sciences, and the humanities. Viewing causality holistically, we first discuss the proximate causes (i.e. the 'how') of PAM, considering three mechanisms: stratification, convergence and mate choice. We also outline methods to control for confounders when studying mate choice. We then discuss ultimate explanations (i.e. 'the why') for PAM, including adaptive and non-adaptive processes. We conclude by suggesting a focus on interdisciplinarity in future research.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.