Assortative Mating Patterns of Homosexual and Heterosexual Couples in Brazil

This paper aims to analyze patterns in the matching behaviors between heterosexual couples and homosexual couples using educational, race and age traits. First of all, in order to show how each group is composed we use descriptive statistics of the data. In addition to that we make a comparative between the earnings of each couple to show the economic differences between them. This study also uses contingency tables and log-linear models as methods that can help us try to understand which traits influence more the matching behaviors of each partner. The results show that race and level of education are characteristics that influence more heterosexual couples than homosexual couples. The traits that are more important to homosexual couples in choosing their partners are race and age. These outcomes show that there are real differences in the way these couples choose each other and leave room for questioning the reason for those differences.