Do opposites actually attract? Research says no
BOSTON - Despite popular belief, opposites don't actually attract, according to new research.
A team at the University of Colorado Boulder studied data on millions of couples collected over more than a century as well as more than 130 traits and concluded that "birds of a feather are indeed more likely to flock together."
In fact, for up to 89 percent of the traits analyzed, partners were more likely to be similar than not. For only about 3 percent of the traits did people tend to choose partners with ones different from theirs. Traits with the highest correlation included political and religious beliefs, education level, certain measures of IQ, and substance use with heavy smokers and heavy drinkers and teetotalers tending to match up with each other.
One trait that didn't seem to matter much was extroversion. Extroverts, or people who tend to be super social and outgoing, are just as likely to end up with another extrovert as with an introvert, or someone who is more reserved.
Of note, same-sex couples were not included in this study, but researchers are looking at those trends separately.