Abstract

Social scientists often conceptualize romantic partner selection as an asymmetric exchange in which partners of different race or gender offer different desired qualities. For example, white women might leverage racial status into upward mobility by marrying socioeconomically advantaged minority men, or minority women might exchange beauty, sexual access, and domestic services for white men’s higher racial status and income. However, such approaches frequently assume gender and race asymmetry in preferences—for example, that men attach greater value to potential partners’ physical attractiveness than women do. These assumptions may be unwarranted, especially among contemporary young couples. In turn, assuming asymmetry in exchange can generate misleading results if partnering patterns are actually symmetric. Accordingly, we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), including a supplementary sample of romantic partners, to reconsider recent findings with an emphasis on evaluating (a)symmetry.

摘要

社会科学家经常将浪漫伴侣的选择概念化为不对称交流，其中不同种族或性别的伴侣提供不同的期望品质。例如，白人妇女可以通过与具有社会经济优势的少数族裔男子结婚来利用种族地位来提升自己的流动性，或者少数族裔妇女可以通过交换美貌，性服务和家庭服务来换取白人男性的更高种族地位和收入。但是，这样的方法通常会优先考虑性别和种族的不对称性，例如，男人比女人更重视潜在伴侣的身体吸引力。这些假设可能毫无根据，尤其是在当代年轻夫妇中。反过来，如果伙伴关系模式实际上是对称的，则假设交换中的不对称会产生误导性的结果。因此，