Based on their findings, it would appear that opposites don’t actually attract. Namely, when it came to the traits they studied, couples typically had around 82% to 89% traits in common, with only 3% of traits differing on average.
Namely, things like political views, religious beliefs, education level, and intelligence, showed the highest correlations in similarity, as well as substance use (or abstaining from substance use). The most common similarity of them all was being born in the same year.
Traits like height and weight, personality, and medical conditions showed less significant correlations, but the study authors note a slight tendency towards similarity was still present there.
And if you’re curious about the traits that showed little correlation at all, extroverts and introverts seem to get along just fine, as well as couples where one person is an “early bird” while the other is a “night owl.” Tendency to worry also saw a negative correlation, suggesting it’s not uncommon for one person in a couple to be more worrisome than the other.
As doctoral candidate and the study’s first author, Tanya Horwitz, explains in a news release, “We’re hoping people can use this data to do their own analyses and learn more about how and why people end up in the relationships they do.”
