The zoolander experiment.

sparrowdown

Do you think romantic relationships work better in the long run if both partners are roughly intellectual equals?

Satanus

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What can movie stars tell us about marriage?

That education matters, study finds

Movie stars: Is there anything they can't tell us?

According to a study published in the Spring issue of the Journal of Human Capital, marriages among
movie stars can help unravel the reasons why people tend to marry partners of similar education levels.
Social scientists have known for years that married people tend to be sorted by their levels of education, but
the reasons for it have been elusive. It could be all about money. People may assume that a partner with
similar education will have a salary that matches theirs. Or it could have to do with lifestyle factors. Similar
education may lead to similar interests in books, music, and hobbies.

On the other hand, sociologists might argue that sorting by education has less to do with personal
preference and more to do with who we're likely to meet. People often meet their future spouses in college
or grad school. Also, people of similar educational backgrounds tend to end up side-by-side in the
workforce, leading to ample opportunities to strike up romance.

Movie star marriages can help sort all this out, according to Gustaf Bruze, an economist at the Aarhus
School of Business and Social Sciences in Denmark.

Bruze assembled a large data set of top movie stars' marriages, earnings, and education levels. He found
that level of formal education has no correlation with a movie star's success, either in terms of box office
earnings or the likelihood of winning an Oscar. Yet despite the disconnect between education and success,
movie stars who marry each other still tend to have similar educational backgrounds, Bruze's analysis
shows. His data also show that actors are unlikely to meet their spouses in school, or be cast together in
movies due to their education level.

The findings suggest that sorting on education isn't all about the money or solely an artifact of professional
affiliations. "What it says is that men and women have very strong preferences for nonfinancial partner
traits correlated with education," Bruze said. "And educational sorting would remain even if the tendency of
men and women to work with colleagues of a similar educational background were to disappear or if the
role of educational institutions as a meeting place for future husbands and wives were to disappear."
It also means that if you're looking to marry actor and Ph.D. student James Franco, you might want to hit
the books.

More information: Gustaf Bruze, "Marriage Choices of Movie Stars: Does Spouse's Education Matter?"
Journal of Human Capital 5:1 (Spring 2011).

Provided by University of Chicago

"What can movie stars tell us about marriage? That education matters, study finds." Phys.org. 27 Apr 2011

S

Barrold Bonds

but why male models

berrygerry

There are way too many variables for a definitive answer.

The sad thing is that most in their youth do not know what they will want when they're older.

Oubliette

A recent study confirms that highly intelligent women tend to marry men who are less intelligent than they are (Kahneman, 2011, p. 181).

Can you figure out why? The answer is deceptively simple, yet usually surprising!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Taken from: Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

BackseatDevil

I'm finding it hard to understand why this question would even be asked. Of course the answer is "yes, but..." as the ideal situation is yes, however there are (as mentioned) way too many other factors at play including chemistry (actual chemistry, not just a generic concept of such) that cause a definitive answer to slide from an over-simplified, rigid generalization.

Teary Oberon

More important than mere 'intelligence' is finding a partner that has matching values, i.e., the things in life one actively seeks to gain or keep. As Rand once said:

"Since a value is that which one acts to gain and/or keep, and the amount of possible action is limited by the duration of one’s lifespan, it is a part of one’s life that one invests in everything one values. The years, months, days or hours of thought, of interest, of action devoted to a value are the currency with which one pays for the enjoyment one receives from it."

You can each have an IQ of exactly 200, but if your values in life are contradictory, then inevitably you will both make each other miserable. It is much better to walk with somebody along the same path and towards the same goal than it is for two people to try pulling each other in opposite directions.

villagegirl

I would say it depends on whether you are a male of female.

I have seen older, well educated men, marry younger practically illiterate

women and the men have complete control over the younger woman

and are continually advising and correcting her and explaining things to her.

It gives me the creeps. Women generally want a man who is at least as well

educated as she is and therefore interesting to talk to and has similar interests.

Two people who have specialized careers in very specific areas, marine biologists,

or artists, or archaeologists might enjoy working together and their similar education

is a bond. The older educated man and the illiterate young woman, is a Pygmalion

model and has long existed in history. For most of us, we just want someone we

can talk to, on an equal level.

sparrowdown

When I say "intellectual equal" I don't necessarily mean equal education or equal IQ test scores.

Intelligence comes in different forms that are not always quantifiable. There are all sorts of "smarts" out there.

Just whether deeper levels of communication, (and in turn understanding) can be achieved within an intellectually, or (if you prefer) mentally-lopsided relationship.Or would it present too many communication challenges that ultimately contribute to the breakdown of the relationship.

Is shallow better off marrying shallow or do opposites like "beauty and the geek" for example, really attract?

The zoolander experiment.

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