Hypergamy not found in large representative sample study of young relationships, average age of females 22, average age of males 24 (2014)

LUClEN · 2015-04-16T01:47:33+00:00

Hypergamy is on the decline. Seeing as women's earnings are nearing parity with men's, and even exceeding them in some cities, it's not surprising. It's much less probable that a man will earn significantly more than a woman, particularly with their overrepresentation in post secondary schools.

CisWhiteMaelstrom · 2015-04-15T23:27:01+00:00

This paper revisits the claim that individuals (generally women) of relatively high physical attractiveness barter their beauty in order to attract a partner of higher socioeconomic status.

TRP doesn't think money is the root of hypergamy. It's nice, but alpha traits are different than that. That's why it's beta bux and not alpha bux. Also, we claim women fuck alphas. We never claim the relationships happen. Most alphas realize there isn't much in a relationship for them. The study's measuring the wrong thing.

ECoast_Man · 2015-04-15T23:33:44+00:00

Yep.

Individual surveys are so reliable. Women never lie about their current (or men for that matter). This must be definitive proof!

fiat_lux_ · 2015-04-15T22:49:43+00:00

If evolutionary adaptations for beauty-status exchange exist, they are less impervious to social structural counter-forces than usually assumed in sociobiological models.

This doesn't bother me as I tend to prefer socioeconomic models anyway.

the main focus of this paper was to test whether exchange (hypergamy) or matching (assortative mating) best accounts for partner selection among typical young couples

This undermines the study at least as it relates to rp. From a cursory reading of the study, she focused mainly on reversing conclusions on past studies on young adults mostly around the young or mid 20's. This would still fit well under the "af" period of "afbb".

"Settling" usually occurs later by most rpers observations. Most rpers appear to use 30 as the threshold, but I honestly would put it at a higher age (not because it's rational for the men or women, mind you).

...

There are numerous issues I take with this study, but in the interest of time I'll name two that immediately come to mind:

1) The author starts from flawed premises. Her research does not use rp models of intergender relations and market models and thus aren't relevant to it.

She may have drawn from her sociology background (focusing on gender equality and relations), because she uses equality as the basis for many of her assumptions. E.g. One of the evidences used against "exchange" is:

The argument that women traded beauty for money out of economic necessity implies that modern women might use their labor market success to secure physically attractive men with poor labor market prospects (e.g., Press) but this does not occur.

No, it doesn't, especially if we don't assume that men and women have equal sexual drive and physical orientation as gender equalist feminists do, which rp clearly doesn't. Ironically, her point here is mild evidence in support for female aversion to hypogamy.

2) For someone who claims to have spent effort studying broader patterns of gender, class, age, and racial inequality and their effects on relationships, it's strange that she didn't factorize the impact socioeconomics could have on physical attractiveness. She did not, and this was especially relevant when discussing the positive correlation witnessed between caste/class and attractiveness. Based on the stereotype that we'd see uggo rich guys all over the place marrying trophy wives, we'd expect negative correlation, which we didn't see. That's a prole belief anyway, and not central to trp.

No one should be surprised that there is a positive correlation between socioeconomic status and physical attractiveness. While obesity is an epidemic in the USA, go to your typical elite school or wealthy enclave and hardly anyone will be obese. They had the values and discipline to get into a top school, and they're likely to have the same discipline to lose control of their bodies. Other factors contributing to this obvious correlation could be due to access to more services (cosmetic surgery), products (makeup, dresses, tailors, etc), and so on.

These and others are confounding factors, and it should have been obvious to anyone who spent enough time here that a crude analysis of the correlations between the differences in partners’ levels of desirable traits are shown Table 4 wouldn't tell us enough.

There's more to say, but I'm cutting it short here.

Admittedly, while her own conclusions weren't terribly compelling either way, they did cast some room for doubt on past studies she called into question. It's not enough, however, to dismiss concepts like the dating market, SMP, marriage market (indeed, she uses these very concepts herself, and only really attacked the concept of "exchange" which is just one component).

kick6 · 2015-04-15T21:55:08+00:00

Interesting study. I'm not sure this stakes the heart of hypergamy based on the low mean age of participants. Of interest, though, is the disparity between the mean age of the male, and the mean age of the female. One would think that, if hypergamy had zero effect, we'd see those two be equal.

taiboworks · 2015-04-16T15:48:02+00:00

lol 22-24, thats the AF phase. Of course they're not hypergamous. They fuck all the alpha they can find.

max_peenor · 2015-04-17T05:50:34+00:00

This is a survey study and not actual science. Get back to me when you have a shitty sample questioner that isn't from 14 years ago.

ThorLives · 2015-04-15T22:49:40+00:00

I guess I'm a little confused. Testing for "Hypergamy" in this case seems to be based on one single attribute: wealth (not looks or social status/dominance or other things which the RP might categorize as alpha-male characteristics). I also couldn't help but think that wealth of 24 year-old males tends to be related to their career choice - but the wealthiest young males tend to be engineers (which tend to do notoriously bad with women, more socially awkward than average, and low on the social hierarchy). I'd also wonder to what extent age plays a role in all of this. I remember the OKCupid study which showed that a man's income didn't seem to play any role in his romantic success until he was out of college (see http://cdn.okcimg.com/blog/lies/MaleMessageDistributionByIncomeBright.png ), which suggests that maybe college-age women didn't really think about income. Although, unlike the study included by the OP, the OKCupid data seems to suggest that income does make a pretty big difference for a man's romantic success - as long as he's out of college.

[deleted] · 2015-04-16T01:43:49+00:00

[permanently deleted]

mykonos_rm · 2015-04-16T03:48:32+00:00

Or, summarize the status quo: both sides have given up.

Most guys would be thankful just to get laid by anything at this point, while girls landing a true alpha and breadwinner is like playing the lottery

CursedLemon · 2015-04-15T21:38:25+00:00

Contextually speaking, on one hand I don't see the point in paying these studies any mind because they do not change the way I approach, view, or treat other people.

On the other hand, I know certain people live and die by any test that shows the opposite of what this particular study reveals to keep their egocentrism well-nourished, so hey...

Cracks open beer

drok007 · 2015-04-15T22:22:02+00:00

Well with a surplus of shitty men on the market what are you gonna do? They can't date up. They will just settle and complain "where have all the good men gone?"

At least RP makes better men, and can help rectify that a bit.

taiboworks · 2015-04-15T22:54:17+00:00

ability as breadwinners.

Not relevant for college age women. The only factor relevant to female hypergamy in college is status/fame and looks. The reality of the utility of men as providers won't hit them until they get out of college and have been in the working world for a few years.

SirNemesis · 2015-04-16T01:07:08+00:00

But at least among the recent cohort of young adults in this study, partner choices do not seem to be driven by hypothetical evolutionary adaptations that cause men to value beauty and women to value men’s ability as breadwinners.

Young women don't want beta bucks. Whoulda thunk it.

Title	Hypergamy not found in large representative sample study of young relationships, average age of females 22, average age of males 24 (2014)
Author	taiboworks
Upvotes	6
Comments	134
Date	April 15, 2015 9:32 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/32qcs3/hypergamy_not_found_in_large_representative/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/hypergamy-not-found-in-large-representative-sample.282630 https://theredarchive.com/post/282630

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