Generally: points taken. On the last point: there may not exactly be assortment on other variables, but surely it’s true that people generally prefer to hang out with others who are kinder, more interesting, more fun to be with, more attractive, etc.
As you select for more variables, the collider relationship between any individual variable pair gets weaker because you can’t select as strongly. So there’s a limit to how many variables this effect can work for at once.
My argument (I think) bypasses this problem because 1. there’s a documented fairly strong assortment on intelligence, 2. I specifically limit the other variable to whichever one they personally particularly value.
Generally: points taken. On the last point: there may not exactly be assortment on other variables, but surely it’s true that people generally prefer to hang out with others who are kinder, more interesting, more fun to be with, more attractive, etc.
As you select for more variables, the collider relationship between any individual variable pair gets weaker because you can’t select as strongly. So there’s a limit to how many variables this effect can work for at once.
My argument (I think) bypasses this problem because 1. there’s a documented fairly strong assortment on intelligence, 2. I specifically limit the other variable to whichever one they personally particularly value.