Operationalising Admissibility-First Partner Selection

This preprint operationalises admissibility-first partner selection as a threshold-gated process structured by admissibility, timing, reachability, time horizon, and trait legibility. Building on the foundational architecture developed in Paper I, the paper translates the distinction between the socially available pool, admissibility formation, within-set preference activation, and observed outcomes into a preliminary measurement and classification framework. Its purpose is to make the upstream contraction of the candidate set empirically observable without reducing partner selection to stated preferences, attraction ratings, scalar human value, or downstream matching outcomes. The framework distinguishes three primary gates. Admissibility concerns whether a candidate clears an actor-relative viability threshold under specified horizon and structural conditions. Timing concerns whether actors become viable and available for the same relational horizon within an overlapping temporal window. Reachability concerns whether practical conditions permit repeated interaction and dyadic formation. Admissibility is further differentiated across short- and long-horizon evaluation and across fast-legible and slow-legible traits. The paper proposes a directional and horizon-sensitive measurement architecture based on anticipated load, mismatch cost, buffering, uncertainty, information quality, and future-path orientation. It also develops a preliminary case-classification system distinguishing mutually aligned candidacy, asymmetric candidacy, mistimed overlap, reachability blocks, horizon–legibility or quadrant mismatch, and compound non-formation. These classifications are intended to distinguish structurally different routes to non-formation that are often collapsed into general incompatibility, insufficient attraction, or vague mismatch. Admissibility is explicitly separated from intrinsic worth, and downstream impact is analytically separated from attributed intent. The paper outlines empirical pathways using vignette experiments, live-interaction and speed-dating designs, longitudinal and repeated-measure studies, and platform or field-structured observational data. It specifies testable predictions concerning horizon-sensitive threshold tightening, delayed trait legibility, attraction–admissibility divergence, mistimed mutual viability, and asymmetric candidacy. The proposed framework is an operational architecture rather than a validated psychometric instrument. Threshold placement, measurement reliability, discriminant validity, and predictive performance remain questions for empirical investigation. This work is Paper II in the Admissibility-First Partner Selection research strand and forms part of Dyadic Systems, Relationships, and Family Formation (Project C) within the wider Structural Viability and Drift research programme.