assortative mating
Similar partners reproduce
Assortative mating is a pattern in biology and social science where individuals tend to mate with others who are similar to themselves in certain traits—height, intelligence, social class, or education level, for instance.
Studies show strong assortative mating for educational attainment.
The opposite pattern, where unlike individuals pair up, is called disassortative or negative assortative mating.
The concept appears in genetics, evolutionary biology, and sociology to explain how traits cluster in populations across generations.
- homogamyMarriage among similars
- matchGame between opponents
- pairingJoining two together
- social stratificationSociety's hierarchical layering
- heritabilityGenetic share of variation
hypergamy · endogamy · genetic variation · consanguinity · phenotype · sexual selection · polygyny · gene flow · fitness · natural selection · attractiveness · selective breeding · compatibility · courtship · conjugation · breeding · genetics · status
- matingbreeding, courtship display, courtship dance, copulation, pairing
- population geneticsallele, gene pool, genetic drift, genetic variation, genotype
- evolutionevolution, natural selection, mutation, adaptation, speciation
- matchmakingmatchmaker, matchmakers, matchmaking, matchmaking services, introduction
- geneticsDNA, allele, genotype, genes, gene
- breedingselective breeding, breeder, crossbreeding, breeding pair, outbreeding
assorted, assortment, sorted, sorting, mating, assort, sorter, matings, assorting