偏好变化与青年择偶匹配--基于上海人民公园“相亲角”的典型案例分析

Preference Change and Youth Marital Matching:The Typical Case Study of Blind Date Corner in People’s Park in Shanghai

不同于假定偏好不变的传统理论视角,研究揭示了偏好变化在青年择偶匹配过程中的重要作用。通过上海人民公园“相亲角”的典型案例分析,着重考察了偏好的硬化与软化、偏好的登门槛效应、内隐偏好的外显定义这三种择偶双方连续匹配的过程类型。研究发现,可变偏好而非稳定偏好决定了择偶匹配结果;情感偏好与身份偏好在择偶互动过程中共同发挥了重要影响;作为常态的择偶行为通常是在双方初始“错配”的基础上,形成伴随偏好变化的连续匹配过程,而非从婚配市场中立即找到“理想伴侣”的一次匹配过程。由此,引出理论与现实意义上的进一步讨论。

Compared with the traditional theories assuming that preferences are invariant,this paper reveals the preference change and its important role in the process of youth marital matching.Through the case study of the experiences of marital matching in the People’s Park in Shanghai,this study focuses on three types of continuous matching process for both sides under the dual perspective of substitutability of preferences and the intrinsic structure of preference sorting.This paper finds,first,that it is often changing preferences rather than stable preferences that determine the outcomes of marital matching and,second,that emotions play an important role in preference change and in the process of mate choice interaction.Third,spouse selection as the norm is usually based on an initial“mismatch”,which results in a continuous matching process with preference change,rather than a onetime matching process in which the“ideal mate”is found immediately from the marriage market.