title: Emergent patterns of mate choice in human populations.
abstract: We present a model of human mate choice that shows how realistic population-level patterns of assortative mating can self-organize and emerge from the behavior of individuals using simple mate search rules. In particular, we model plausible psychological mechanisms for mate search and choice in a realistic social ecology. Through individual interactions, patterns emerge that match those observed in typical human societies, particularly with regard to correlated quality levels within couples, distributions of the ages at which couples mate, and effects of skewed sex ratios on these mating age distributions.
authors.affiliation: CENTRIA - Computer Science Department, FCT - New University of Lisbon, 2825-114 Monte da Caparica, Portugal. jsimao@di.fct.unl.pt
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Simão
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Todd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012744:Sex Ratio