Assortative matching arises without anyone preferring a similar partner

Evidence

Kalick and Hamilton (1986) used ABM to simulate the well-known empirical fact that people tend to end up with romantic partners of about equal attractiveness to themselves. Highly attractive people end up with highly attractive people, moderately attractive people end up with moderately attractive people, and so on. A common explanation for this fact was that people actively seek partners with similar levels of attractiveness, presumably due to the fear of being rejected by more attractive prospects (e.g., Berscheid, Dion, Walster, & Walster, 1971) or from a general preference for similarity in all attributes. However, repeated studies found no support for the proposed similarity preference. Instead, all people demonstrate a strong preference for the most attractive potential partners (e.g., Curran & Lippold, 1975). Kalick and Hamilton sought to resolve this paradox via ABM. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 825

Categorization

• XREF: Parallel to Schelling segregation: an observed stratified outcome traced to something other than a preference for that outcome — a second, domain-different instance for the prejudice thread.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 825