There's a lot of controversy lately surrounding the idea that
obesity might be a social disease -- that is, spending time with obese people can lead to obesity. All that considered, the news that
obese people tend to have obese mates should not come as a surprise. This all fits in with a theory of
assortative mating, based on the belief that people don't just choose mates randomly -- whether they mean to or not, people tend to select mates based on physical attributes like height, weight, religion, age and so on.
What do you think -- is choosing a mate who is the same size a conscious decision, is it something we're programed to do, or is this whole theory a bunch of you-know-what?