Assortative Mating on Ideology Could Operate Through Olfactory Cues

Bibliographic Data

ID6231859
AuthorsRose Mcdermott (0000-0002-0920-1541, Brown University), Dustin Tingley (0000-0002-2216-6293, Harvard University), Peter K Hatemi (0000-0001-6514-2614, Pennsylvania State University)
Year2014
Volume58
Issue4
Pages997-1005
Publication date2014-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ajps.12133
OpenAlexW2169247175
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited65

Mates appear to assort on political attitudes more than any other social, behavioral, or physical trait, besides religion. Yet the process by which ideologically similar mates end up together remains ambiguous. Mates do not appear to consciously select one another based on ideology, nor does similarity result from convergence. Recently, several lines of inquiry have converged on the finding that olfactory processes have an important role in both political ideology and mate selection. Here we integrate extant studies of attraction, ideology, and olfaction and explore the possibility that assortation on political attitudes may result, in part, from greater attraction to the scent of those with shared ideology. We conduct a study in which individuals evaluated the body odor of unknown others, observing that individuals are more attracted to their ideological concomitants

Assortative mating · Attraction · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Extant taxon · Ideology · Mate choice · Mating · Political science · Politics · Similarity (geometry · Sociology · Trait · Animal Behavior and Reproduction · Ecology · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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