We present a model of human mate choice that shows how realistic population-level patterns of assortative mating can self-organize and emerge from the behavior of individuals using simple mate search rules. In particular, we model plausible psychological mechanisms for mate search and choice in a realistic social ecology. Through individual interactions, patterns emerge that match those observed in typical human societies, particularly with regard to correlated quality levels within couples, distributions of the ages at which couples mate, and effects of skewed sex ratios on these mating age distributions.

Human mate choice, emergence, courtship, assortative mating, age at marriage
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© 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2003
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