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The Role of Personality and Intelligence in Assortative Mating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Sergio Escorial  and
Carmen Martín-Buro
Sergio Escorial*
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
Carmen Martín-Buro
Affiliation:
Centro de Enseñanza Superior Cardenal Cisneros (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sergio Escorial. Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Despacho 2006-K, Campus de Somosaguas, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón. Madrid (Spain). E-mail: sergio.escorial@psi.ucm.es
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Abstract

Assortative mating is the individuals' tendency to mate with those who are similar to them in some variables, at a higher rate than would be expected from random. This study aims to provide empirical evidence of assortative mating through the Big Five model of personality and two measures of intelligence using Spanish samples. The sample consisted of 244 Spanish couples. It was divided into two groups according to relationship time. The effect of age, educational level and socioeconomic status was controlled. The results showed strong assortative mating for intelligence and moderate for personality. The strongest correlations for Personality were found in Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.

El emparejamiento selectivo es la tendencia de los individuos a emparejarse con aquellos que son semejantes a ellos en ciertas variables, más de lo que cabría esperar por azar. El presente estudio pretende aportar evidencia empírica acerca del emparejamiento selectivo con muestras españolas a través del modelo Big Five de la personalidad y de dos medidas de inteligencia. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 244 parejas españolas, y fue dividida por el tiempo de relación en dos grupos. Se controló el efecto de la edad, el nivel académico y el nivel socioeconómico. Los resultados mostraron un fuerte emparejamiento selectivo en inteligencia y más moderado para la personalidad. Los rasgos de personalidad con mayores correlaciones fueron Apertura, Cordialidad y Responsabilidad.

Keywords

assortative matingintelligence and personalityemparejamiento selectivointeligencia y personalidad
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 680 - 687
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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