Hypergamy
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Hypergamy (colloquially referred to as "dating up" or "marrying up"
The antonym "hypogamy"[a] refers to the inverse: marrying a person of lower social class or status (colloquially "marrying down"). Both terms were invented in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century while translating classical Hindu law books, which used the Sanskrit terms anuloma and pratiloma, respectively, for the two concepts.[2]
The term hypergyny is used to describe the overall practice of women marrying up, since the men would be marrying down.[3]
Research
One study found that women are more selective in their choice of marriage partners than are men.[4][5]
A study done by the University of Minnesota in 2017 found that females generally prefer dominant males as mates.[6] Research conducted throughout the world strongly supports the position that women prefer marriage with partners who are culturally successful or have high potential to become culturally successful. The most extensive of these studies included 10,000 people in 37 cultures across six continents and five islands. Women rated "good financial prospect" higher than men did in all cultures. In 29 samples, the "ambition and industriousness" of a prospective mate were more important for women than for men. Meta-analysis of research published from 1965 to 1986 revealed the same sex difference (Feingold, 1992). Across studies, 3 out of 4 women rated socioeconomic status as more important in a prospective marriage partner than did the average man.
Gilles Saint-Paul (2008) proposes a mathematical model that purports to demonstrate that human female hypergamy occurs because women have greater lost mating
An empirical study examined the mate preferences of subscribers to a computer dating service in Israel that had a highly skewed sex ratio (646 men for 1,000 women). Despite this skewed sex ratio, they found that "On education and socioeconomic status, women on average express greater hypergamic selectivity; they prefer mates who are superior to them in these traits... while men express a desire for an analogue of hypergamy based on physical attractiveness; they desire a mate who ranks higher on the physical attractiveness scale than they themselves do."[8]: 51
One study did not find a statistical difference in the number of women or men "marrying-up" in a sample of 1,109 first-time married couples in the United States.[9]
Another study found traditional marriage practices in which men "marry down" in education do not persist for long once women have the educational advantage.[10]
Additional studies of
In a 2016 paper that explored the income difference between couples in 1980 and 2012, researcher Yue Qian noted that the tendency for women to marry men with higher incomes than themselves still persists in the modern era.[14]
Prevalence
It is becoming less common for women to marry older men. Hypergamy does not necessitate the man being older; rather, it requires him to have higher status. The term 'social equals' typically pertains to shared
See also
- Dating
- Dating preferences
- Eligible bachelor
- Erotic capital
- Evolutionary psychology
- Exogamy
- Men's rights movement#Female privilege
- Gold digging
- Mating system
- Polygamy
- Polygyny threshold model
- Resource acquisition ability
- Sexual selection
- Social psychology
- Social status
- Socioeconomics
- Trophy wife
- Utilitarianism
Notes
- hypogynous".
References
- ^ Abgarian, Almara (21 October 2018). "What is hypergamy and are some people prone to it?". metro.co.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-136-19770-3
- S2CID 144749330.
It seemed clear from my materials that, as long ago proposed by Risley (1908) and Rivers (1921), this practice was a product of hypergyny, the upward flow of brides in a society which, being pyramidal, had fewer grooms at the top
- S2CID 6848381. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ Geary, David C.; Vigil, Jacob; Byrd-Craven, Jennifer (2003). "Evolution of Human Mate Choice" (PDF). web.simmons.edu. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- ^ "Women's Mate Preferences". ResearchGate. January 2017. p. 3. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
- hdl:10419/36029.
- doi:10.1037/h0099356.
- S2CID 153727934.
- PMID 28490820.
- S2CID 83722614. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-04-12.
- ^ Hadfield, Elaine (1995). Men's and Women's Preferences in Marital Partners in the United States, Russia, and Japan (PDF). Vol. 26. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. pp. 728–750. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
- S2CID 3099690.
- .
- ISBN 978-0742570030.
- ISBN 978-0742561519.
- ^ McVeigh, Tracy (2012-04-07). "Shift in marriage patterns 'has effect on inequality'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
External links
- The dictionary definition of hypergamy at Wiktionary