East Asians’ Lower Satisfaction With Homelife Is Plausibly Related to Lower Attitude Similarity Within Couples

World Values Survey respondents from East Asia (China and Japan) viewed themselves as less similar to their spouses on a variety of attitude domains, compared to respondents from Western and other non-Western cultures. Mediational analyses showed significant indirect effects from the East Asian variable through attitude dissimilarity to lower homelife satisfaction. In all regions, similarity with one’s spouse predicted homelife satisfaction. Unexpectedly, it was a relatively weaker predictor for Western European couples (vs. elsewhere). One puzzle is whether shared attitudes (a) are so important for Westerners that they self-select into relationships where remaining discrepancies are trivial or (b) are so unimportant for Westerners, who needlessly sort themselves on this basis.