The Role and Consequences of Arranged Marriage in the Evolution of Human Mating

Abstract

Mate selection has important fitness implications and thus has been a prominent focus across the evolutionary social sciences. However, despite ample evidence that human mate selection is uniquely shaped by others, existing research allocates outsized attention to individual preferences. Here, we take stock of the implications of arranged marriage, highlighting measurement issues that obscure continua of parental influence and likely drive inconsistency in the downstream literature. Focusing on parent–offspring conflict over spouse selection, we find (i) culturally widespread evidence of conflicting preferences, but limited evidence that conflict impacts realized spouse selection, (ii) parental approval predicts marriage outcomes more so than parental control, and (iii) that key predictions about socioecological variation in the form and consequences of conflict remain largely untested. We conclude that a more satisfying account of human mating will require refined measurement of its social embeddedness, greater focus on conflict negotiation, and continued cross-cultural research.