{"id":4757,"date":"2023-09-12T14:28:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T14:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=4757"},"modified":"2023-09-12T14:28:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T14:28:46","slug":"new-study-suggests-couples-are-more-likely-to-be-similar-than-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2023\/09\/new-study-suggests-couples-are-more-likely-to-be-similar-than-different.html","title":{"rendered":"New Study Suggests Couples Are More Likely to Be Similar Than Different"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The power of animal magnetism has brought numerous couples together, but when it comes to who we fall for, scientists believe there\u2019s little truth in the adage that opposites attract. A study on romantic relationships found that for over 80 percent of traits analyzed, from drug taking to political views, partners were typically remarkably similar.<\/p>\n

Tanya Horowtiz, the first author of the study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour<\/em><\/a> and a PH.D. student at the University of Colorado Boulder, said, \u201cBirds of a feather are indeed more likely to flock together.\u201d According to the research, between 82 and 89 percent of traits examined were similar among partners, with only three percent ranking as substantially different.<\/p>\n

For the study, scientists reviewed previous research on how similar or dissimilar couples tended to be, work that covered 22 traits across nearly 200 papers involving millions of male-female partnerships dating back to 1903. Then, the group followed up with a fresh analysis of 133 traits in nearly 80,000 opposite-sex couples enrolled in the UK Biobank project<\/a>. Because behavior may differ for same-sex couples, scientists investigate these relationships separately. In both pieces of work, couples largely matched across a range of traits, including religious and political views, levels of education and some measures of IQ.<\/p>\n

Heavy drinkers, smokers, and teetotallers all tended to partner with people who shared their habits. However, couples didn\u2019t match on every front. Weight, height, medical issues and personality traits all varied among couples. For example, extroverts were no more likely to partner up with other extroverts than introverts. Horwitz said, \u201cThe fact of the matter is that it\u2019s like flipping a coin.\u201d Couples were likely to share a similar birth year and show similarities in less well-studied traits, such as how many sexual partners they had had and whether they were breastfed as a baby.<\/p>\n