How Important is Physical Attractiveness in the Marriage Market?

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to discover how important physical attractiveness
is in finding a partner and in the type of partnership sought. Two surveys
(2975 and 3004 by the CIS) and several methods were employed: linear
probability models and fixed-effect multi-level models. For men, the
results show that being unattractive decreases the likelihood of finding a
partner, of finding a partner with a university degree, and of finding a
partner with a higher educational level. For women, physical
attractiveness does not affect the likelihood of any of those events
occurring. The study has also found out that physical attractiveness has
more of an influence on people with a working class background to find a
partner with higher educational attainment. These results are
unexpected and pose a challenge to the theory of erotic capital.