Politics run deep when choosing mates

Was the marriage of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver doomed from the start?

Is political polarization bound to increase in the coming years?

Depending on your interpretation of a study co-authored by a University of Nebraska political scientist, the answer to both questions may be yes.

According to the study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Politics, we tend to "sort" potential mates by political views, and are unlikely to conform to our spouse's view over the years.

Was that the problem with "Conan the Republican" and Maria the Kennedy? And what about James Carville and Mary Matalin?

"We did expect to find a strong political bond between husbands and wives," said John R. Hibbing of UN-L and a co-author of the study. "But we were surprised that political concordance seems to exist from the very early years in the marriage, instead of the folk wisdom of mates growing more alike politically as their relationship goes along."

Politics isn't a top criteria for most of us when choosing a mate, of course, but we do tend to choose one from our own religious, social, economic and educational surrounds, which is likely to result in a spouse with similar political views.

If that's true, the authors said, it might mean that as liberals and conservatives marry their own types, and pass along their political views to their children, fewer and fewer of us will fall in the political middle.

Since so much progress depends on compromise, however, the lesson for the future of our political system -- and our domestic relationships -- may have to be a willingness to agree t0 disagree.