Are you more likely to be attracted to someone similar to yourself, an analysis of 80,000 couples reveals

【Is it true that “people like people who are the opposite of themselves?”】
https://gigazine.net/news/20230908-opposites-attract-usually-not/

・A team of psychologists at the University of Colorado report that they are often attracted to people who look like them

・An analysis of 133 characteristics observed in approximately 80,000 heterosexual couples was conducted

・The analysis showed strong correlations between couples on measures such as political and religious attitudes, education level, IQ, and frequency of smoking and drinking. In addition, characteristics such as height, weight, pre-existing medical conditions, and personality also showed slight positive correlations. In other words, “people with high IQ tend to associate with people who also have high IQ,” and “people who smoke frequently tend to associate with people who also smoke frequently.

・On the other hand, no correlation was found for characteristics such as extroversion or introversion between couples

・Negative correlations were inversely correlated with characteristics such as morning or evening type, feeling of anxiety, and presence of hearing impairment

・This research could have a significant impact on the concept of “assortative mating,” in which individuals with similar characteristics tend to partner with each other

・Warns, “The correlations found here are quite modest and should not be exaggerated or misused to unduly promote this agenda.”

These are the quotes from the article

Are you easily attracted to people who look like you?Are you easily attracted to people who don’t look like you?

Do you like people who feel like you? Do you like people who feel different from you?

These are questions that are often discussed and unanswered.

But according to this study,

they are more likely to like and be attracted to people who look like them.

Let me reiterate the above article and summarize it in my own way.

＜Strong Correlation＞

・Political Attitudes, Education Level, IQ＝It’s easy to be attracted to people who think and think alike.

・Frequency of smoking and drinking＝Easily attracted to people with similar tastes and styles.

＜Weak correlation＞

・Height, weight＝It is easy to be attracted to them if they are the same, but they can be attracted to you even if they are different.

・chronic disease＝It is easy to be attracted to them if they have the same preexisting condition, but even if they are different,

・character＝It is easy to be attracted to them if they have the same preexisting condition, but even if they are different,

＜I don’t see any correlation.＞

・Extroversion, introversion＝There does not seem to be a relationship between ease of attraction

＜negative correlation＝It’s easier to be attracted to them when they are different.＞

・Morning people and night people＝Are morning people and night people attracted to each other in opposite ways?

・Feelings of insecurity＝Are you more likely to be attracted to different ways of dealing with anxiety and different intensities of anxiety?

・With or without hearing impairment＝A supportive relationship between people with and without hearing?

Above,

＜When you look at <strong correlation> and <weak correlation>, you may be convinced that “yes, yes, that may be true.

But the last one, <negative total relationship>, is very interesting. As for this element, the less similar it is, the easier it is to attract.

This time, the theme is that people who feel like you (people who look like you) are more likely to be attracted to you, but I wondered, “Why, with respect to this element, are people who don’t look like you more likely to be attracted to you?” I was very interested in this.

This is my own short-cut interpretation as I write this blog,

Elements that could be complementary may be more easily attracted if they are not similar.

・When a partner is someone who feels the same as you, it is easy to spend time with them, but when they clash, it is intense.

・When someone who feels different from you is your partner, it can be difficult to spend time with them, but because they are different, you can have a complementary relationship that complements each other.

So, I think there are advantages and disadvantages for both the same and different couples.

If we look at it from the perspective of complementary relationships, which is a benefit of different couples,

Morning and night types might be able to compensate because of their different lifestyles,

And because they feel anxiety differently, they may be able to compensate mentally,

(With regard to hearing impairment, they may support each other rather than compensate for each other.)

For example,

Different political attitudes may not be complementary, they may just clash.

Different IQs may not be complementary either.

Yeah, yeah, that’s interesting.

At the end of the article, the authors warn that “the correlations found in this study are quite modest and should not be over-utilized,” so perhaps it is best to take this study at the level of a slight trend, but I found it very interesting.

Are you easily attracted to people who look like you? Are you easily attracted to people who are not like you?

Based on these, it might be interesting to consider your own past relationship tendencies and future ones as well. (Just enough to have fun and to refer to them lightly)

See you then.

It is said that people who have frequent contact with each other are more likely to fall in love, but from the perspective of “like attracts like”, people often meet each other because they are similar to each other,

From this perspective, it may be that people who are similar to each other are more likely to be attracted to each other and fall in love.