According to the Game theory of male/female relations (correct me if I'm wrong), women tend to control whether a relationship is made or continued, and her decision depends on the guy's alpha-ness. She won't want to be in a relationship if the guy is too agreeable. If this is so, I would expect disagreeable men to be more likely than cooperative men to be married. The MIDUS study measured Big Five personality traits and asked about marital status. I dichotmized this variable into married (1) and not married (0). I looked at the relationship between the agreeableness scale and being married, and included age in the model as a control:
Logistic regression coefficients (sample = 1,788)
Age .01*
Agreeableness -.04
*statistically significant
Older men are more likely to be married, but being an agreeable guy doesn't hurt one's chance of marriage at all.
I suspect that the Game perspective is flawed by oversimplifying. As we learn from evolutionary psychology, women tend to look at men from two different perspectives: as short-term and long-term partners. They tend to be more attracted to the Alpha for short-term relationships but focus more on the Beta for marriage. Betas are at a disadvantage if they just want to get laid, but their cooperativeness does not appear to keep them out of long-term relationships. (Nor are they more likely to lose a wife through separation and divorce: the mean agreeableness scores for married, separated, and divorced men do not differ.)
Showing posts with label Game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
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