The Science of Mating

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Research shows people’s exes and current partners often share similar personality traits.

A person's romantic partners tend to resemble each other physically more than random chance predicts.

People high in extraversion and openness to experience have less consistent "types" when it comes to dating.

Think about your exes for a moment. Do they all seem completely different to you, or do you notice that they share certain traits?

The idea that people have a romantic "type" is deeply embedded in popular culture, but just how much commonality exists in the partners we select? In this post, we'll explore what the research says.

Do We Choose Partners With Similar Personalities?

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Toronto analyzed data from a nine-year longitudinal study that involved a nationally representative sample of Germans. However, they only focused on the responses of 332 adults (159 men and 173 women) who had two different romantic partners to participate in this study at different points in time over that nine-year term.

Each individual—and each of their partners—were asked to complete the Big Five personality inventory, which assessed their standing on the traits of openness to........

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