Toward a Formal Sociological Model of Partner Search

• In Event: 40221 - Section on Mathematical Sociology Flash Talks
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 10: Toward a Formal Sociological Model of Partner Search

Abstract

In this paper, I propose the outlines of a formal sociological model of partner search incorporating dynamic endogeneities that I argue reflect how intimate relationships are formed and whether, once formed, they dissolve or are sustained. I begin with a critical assessment of economic matching and search models for jobs and marriage. I then apply a sociological lens to clarify the ways in which job and partner search are formally similar and the ways in which they differ sharply. The proposed model moves beyond existing models of marital search to include partner search resulting in cohabiting and non-coresidential relationships, as well as partner search among sexual minorities. The model generates predictions concerning: the learning dynamics that arise from partner traits that are less easily observed; changes in the bar for marriage, relationship churning, and the duration spent in partner search; contextual and dynamic factors influencing search intensity; and how decreases in search costs can lead to a ``paradox of choice'' in which search durations increase due to declines in the interest of potential partners in one another. These complexities lead me to conjecture that the dynamic nature of the process of partner search will not possess the stable equilibria or optimal properties posited by neoclassical economic theories of "efficient markets".

Author

• Lawrence L. Wu, New York University