A study examines personality similarities between individuals' past and current romantic partners. Romantic relationships have significant impacts on well-being, but the degree to which individuals are paired with partners who have similar personalities is unclear. Yoobin Park and Geoff MacDonald analyzed personality similarities between individuals' current and ex-partners via longitudinal data from the German Family Panel study. Beginning in 2008, the authors tracked the participants' relationship status. From the following year and each time the participants entered a new relationship, their romantic partners who agreed to participate in the study described their own personality traits related to agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. By 2017, 332 participants had dated two different partners who completed the personality assessments. Overall, participants' current partners described their personalities in ways that were similar to the participants as well as the participants' ex-partners. The authors also found evidence suggesting that participants who rated themselves high in extraversion and/or openness to experience were less likely to date current partners who were similar to their ex-partners. According to the authors, the findings suggest that individuals tend to date people with similar personalities, and partnering patterns may be more predictable than thought.
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Article #19-02937: "Consistency between individuals' past and current romantic partners' own reports of their personalities," by Yoobin Park and Geoff MacDonald.
MEDIA CONTACT: Yoobin Park, University of Toronto, CANADA; tel: 647-862-6552; email: < yoobin.park@mail.utoronto.ca >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences