Interparental disagreement over in‐law choice

Parents are influential over their children's mate choices, which raises the question of whether mothers and fathers agree when it comes to selecting spouses for their daughters and sons. Based on evolutionary reasoning, this article hypothesizes that there is interparental disagreement over in‐law choice. In particular, it is predicted that fathers are more willing than mothers to make in‐law choices so as to benefit themselves at the expense of their children. Evidence from 2 independent studies provided support for this hypothesis. Two interaction effects were also found—namely, mother–father disagreement is higher when the cost of mate selection is higher for their children than when it is lower, and disagreement more often occurs over the mate choices of daughters.