In this weeks module, the topics of attraction and jealousy were discussed. Within the discussion, the notion of “opposites attract” was brought up, as well as the opposite stance, “birds of a feather, flock together”. In Layman’s terms, “opposites attract” refers to the concept that people who aren’t similar in their personality and/or interests are more likely to be compatible in a relationship. “Birds of a feather, flock together”, on the other hand, refers to the concept that people who are similar in their personality and/or interests are more likely to be compatible.
I found an article published in 2023 discussing whether or not opposites truly do attract. In the study, the authors conducted a meta-analysis on the topic to review previous findings on concordance rates in partners for the same or extremely similar complex traits. Upon analyzing the studies the researchers collected, political attitudes, religious attitudes, educational attainment, and some substance use traits had the highest correlations. Conversely, personality and anthropometric traits tended to reveal lower, but still positive, correlations. While it should be noted that estimates for other traits were smaller, 18 of the 22 traits were found to be statistically significant (Horwitz, T. B., Balbona, J. V., Paulich, K. N., & Keller, M. C. (2023). Evidence of correlations between human partners based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses of 22 traits and UK Biobank analysis of 133 traits. Nature human behaviour, 7(9), 1568–1583. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01672-z).
In another study, the researchers examined the scores of individual’s self-reports on the five-factors of personality. The five factors in the five-factor personality model are as follows:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
After gathering the scores from the self-reports, they analyzed the similarities between friends and romantic-partners. Following this analysis, they found evidence of personality similarity in both friends and romantic-partners. This again affirms the idea that individuals are more likely to develop friendships and romantic relationships in those who are similar to them (Youyou, W., Stillwell, D., Schwartz, H. A., & Kosinski, M. (2017). Birds of a Feather Do Flock Together: Behavior-Based Personality-Assessment Method Reveals Personality Similarity Among Couples and Friends. Psychological Science, 28(3), 276-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616678187).
All these statistics exemplify the human preference for similar individuals, but that is not to say that individuals who are different can’t be attracted to one another, but rather humans tend to be attracted to others who share similarities with them. There could be many explanations for this fact. Humans might be attracted to those more similar to them as they may be less likely to engage in conflict with people who have less differences. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, studies show that humans have a preference for those similar to them, giving weight to the idea that birds of a feather, flock together.
Works Cited
- Horwitz, T. B., Balbona, J. V., Paulich, K. N., & Keller, M. C. (2023). Evidence of correlations between human partners based on systematic reviews and meta-analyses of 22 traits and UK Biobank analysis of 133 traits. Nature human behaviour, 7(9), 1568–1583. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01672-z
- Youyou, W., Stillwell, D., Schwartz, H. A., & Kosinski, M. (2017). Birds of a Feather Do Flock Together: Behavior-Based Personality-Assessment Method Reveals Personality Similarity Among Couples and Friends. Psychological Science, 28(3), 276-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616678187
While it doesn’t necessarily surprise me to find that relationships are more likely to occur on the basis of similarity, I still wonder why the latter proposition garners belief. Specifically, I have to ask, why does this notion of “opposites attract” gain public assertion?. I will grant that I am speaking from a degree of hindsight bias, but the logic behind this idea eludes me. Beyond popular media or lay “common sense”, I struggle to find substantive academic literature supporting this association; Cerasa et al., (2022) provides some evidence to support the claim within their analysis of personality traits, yet even they make note of data supporting the former claim of similarity playing a significant role in long-term relationship development. As such, again, I question why this idea remains popular and am curious to see if it will ever fade into obscurity.
References:
Cerasa, A., Cristiani, E., De Luca, B., De Narda, M. L., Cundò, M. C., Bottani, S. C., Iolanda, M., Sarica, A., & De Canditiis, D. (2020). May personality influence the selection of life-long mate? A multivariate predictive model. Current Psychology, 41(5), 2598-2605.