Assortative mating on blood type: Evidence from one million Chinese pregnancies

Assortative mating on blood type: Evidence from one million Chinese pregnancies. Yao Hou et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, December 14, 2022, Vol. 119 (no. 51) e2209643119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2209643119

Significance: In the human population, spousal pairs have been found to share phenotypes, which demonstrates the highly nonrandom nature of human mate choice. However, assortative mating on blood type—one of the most fundamental phenotypes in biological, medical, and psychological studies—has not been investigated. Using a unique dataset from China, we provide statistical analysis to test whether matching on blood type is nonrandom and find a set of strong evidence for assortative mating on blood type. The findings are robust after we control for the effect of other possible mechanisms, and show that the spousal concordance on blood type we observe is attributable to not only an individual’s mate opportunity but also their mate choice.

Abstract: Blood type is one of the most fundamental phenotypes in biological, medical, and psychological studies. Using a unique dataset of one million Chinese pregnancies, we find strong evidence from a group of statistical tests for assortative mating on blood type. After controlling for anthropometric and socioeconomic confounders, assortative mating remains robust.

Possible Reasons for Assortative Mating on Blood Type

Having shown robust evidence for assortative mating on blood type, we investigate potential reasons. One possible explanation is that blood type may act as a proxy for other phenotypes. As previously stated, many studies have validated assortative mating on a group of phenotypes, such as BMI, weight, height, and IQ (10, 16–21). That is, individuals tend to choose a partner who shares similarities along these dimensions when making mate choices. If blood type is associated with these phenotypes, spousal concordance on blood type will be observed because of assortative mating. Using personal information provided by the dataset, we examine bivariate correlation between blood type and other phenotypes (Fig. 2). There appear to be some associations between blood type and the phenotypes we examine: education, job type, height, weight, pressure, and drinking habits. However, most associations have a relatively small correlation coefficient lying between −0.03 and 0.03.

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To further explore to what extent assortative mating on blood type can be explained by its correlation with other phenotypes, we performed mediation analysis. Specifically, we first regressed the individual’s blood type on her partner’s using a logistic regression model, then incorporated a mediator—i.e., one of the partner’s phenotypes that might be associated with his blood type—to see whether and to what degree the effect of the partner’s blood type on the individual’s blood type is weakened after the mediator is included in the regression. We report the results of mediation analysis in Tables 7 and 8. As can be seen, the coefficients of the partner’s blood type decline after we included different mediators in the regression models, which shows that the associations between blood type and other phenotypes can explain assortative mating on blood type to a certain degree. We see from columns 2 to 9 in Table 7 and column 1 in Table 8 that the proportion of the coefficients of the partner’s blood type absorbed by mediators varies with blood type. For individuals with type B blood, when all mediators are included, the coefficients of the partner’s blood type are reduced by around 6 to 7%; for those with type A blood, the incorporation of mediators has little effect on estimation results for coefficients of the partner’s blood type, as shown in column 1 in Table 8. As for those with type AB blood or type O blood, the scale of mediator absorption is about 3 to 4%. However, a large fraction of assortativity remains unexplained. When we further included a group of control variables to isolate our measure of assortative mating from confounding factors—such as population stratification, province-level fixed effects, or even the individual’s phenotypes—in the regression, as indicated by the statistical significance of the coefficients of the partner’s blood type in columns 2 to 4 in Table 8, we still found strong evidence for assortative mating on blood type. These findings suggest that there could be other potential mechanisms for this pattern we observe in the data. Further investigation into this is left for future research.

The desire to be remembered: A review and analysis of legacy motivations and behaviors

The desire to be remembered: A review and analysis of legacy motivations and behaviors. Brett Waggoner, Jesse M. Bering. Jamin Halberstadt. New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 69, April 2023, 101005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2022.101005

Abstract: The psychological motivations and mechanisms underlying a desire to be remembered after death is an understudied area in the social sciences. While previous research has indirectly investigated the pursuit of legacy as a means of coping with death anxiety, little attention has been paid to other potential factors involved in the appeal of leaving an individualistic (usually positive) mark in society that will outlive the self. In the present paper, we broaden the theoretical examination of the human drive for legacy, considering proximate motivations (e.g., alleviating death anxiety, concluding one's “life story” well, etc.) and ultimate causes (i.e., the direct or indirect reproductive effects that post-mortem reputations confer to surviving relatives). Additionally, we consider cognitive factors related to afterlife beliefs and perceptions of post-mortem consciousness, and their potential role in legacy-related desires. We conclude by discussing areas for further empirical investigations of the legacy drive.

Check also Legacy: Motivations and Mechanisms for a Desire to be Remembered. Brett Jordan Waggoner. PhD Thesis, Feb 2022. https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/14115/WaggonerBrettJ2022PhD.pdf

Introduction

Individual human beings have long strived to create and curate an enduring post-mortem reputation—their “legacy” (Braudy, 1986). They do this in a variety of ways, such as via sports achievement, creative works, having children, leaving a financial endowment, philanthropy, passing down family heirlooms, or extreme attention-grabbing acts (Hunter, 2008). In lay terms, legacy can be defined as “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past” or “a gift by will esp. of money or other personal property” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). Some researchers, working in the fields of positive psychology or narratology, have also emphasized the process of legacy, as in “the process of passing oneself through generations, creating continuity from the past through the present to the future” (Hunter, 2008, p. 314).

What is largely missing from these examples is any explicit reference to the fact that legacy centers, rather curiously, on the reputation of the self after death. It is primarily this aspect of legacy (how others will regard the self once that self ceases to exist, and why this is of particular concern to the living) that we examine in the present article. Absent a belief in the continued capacity to know how one is being regarded despite being dead, it is unclear why we should care how others will view us, or our life's work, after our consciousness expires. And yet, the desire and motivation to leave a legacy, even among those who do not believe in an afterlife, is ostensibly a powerful influence on our lives.

Although previous scholars have investigated concepts related to legacy, such as terror management theory (Becker, 1973; Solomon et al., 1991) and generativity (Erikson, 1950, 1968; McAdams et al., 1998), it is a surprisingly understudied research topic (for exceptions, see Aarssen & Altman, 2006; Sligte et al., 2013; Fox et al., 2010; Hunter & Rowles, 2005; Wade-Benzoni & Tost, 2009; Wade-Benzoni et al., 2010). Furthermore, what little work has been done in this area has tended to neglect the most puzzling question of all, which is why people seem so predisposed to ensure their own positive reputations when, at least from a materialistic perspective, they will not be able to experience it. In what follows, therefore, we consider proximate causes of the legacy drive (e.g., pursuing “symbolic immortality” to assuage death anxiety, e.g., Greenberg et al., 1986, creating a satisfying ending to one's “life story”, e.g., McAdams, 1993, etc.), ultimate causes (e.g., the direct or indirect reproductive effects that post-mortem reputations might confer to surviving biological relatives, whether these effects are positive or negative), and possible cognitive factors mediating between these levels of causation, such as a so-called default afterlife stance that – even among afterlife nonbelievers – promotes the representation of the future dead self as a conscious, experiential agent (Bering, 2006).

At age 50, people who had met diagnostic criteria for depression when surveyed at ages 27-35 earn 10% lower hourly wages, work 120-180 fewer hours annually, together generating 24% lower annual wage incomes

Lasting Scars: The Impact of Depression in Early Adulthood on Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes. Buyi Wang, Richard G. Frank & Sherry A. Glied. NBER Working Paper 30776, December 2022. DOI 10.3386/w30776

Abstract: A growing body of evidence indicates that poor health early in life can leave lasting scars on adult health and economic outcomes. While much of this literature focuses on childhood experiences, mechanisms generating these lasting effects – recurrence of illness and interruption of human capital accumulation – are not limited to childhood. In this study, we examine how an episode of depression experienced in early adulthood affects subsequent labor market outcomes. We find that, at age 50, people who had met diagnostic criteria for depression when surveyed at ages 27-35 earn 10% lower hourly wages (conditional on occupation) and work 120-180 fewer hours annually, together generating 24% lower annual wage incomes. A portion of this income penalty (21-39%) occurs because depression is often a chronic condition, recurring later in life. But a substantial share (25-55%) occurs because depression in early adulthood disrupts human capital accumulation, by reducing work experience and by influencing selection into occupations with skill distributions that offer lower potential for wage growth. These lingering effects of early depression reinforce the importance of early and multifaceted intervention to address depression and its follow-on effects in the workplace.