WHEN it comes to relationships, we are often told that opposites attract. Now, a study suggests couples stay together longer if they share some common ground.
Beatrice Rammstedt of the Centre for Survey Research and Methodology in Mannheim, Germany, and Jürgen Schupp of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin looked at the “big five” personality traits in over 6000 couples in Germany. They found people choose partners who are similar to themselves in terms of agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, while extroversion and emotional stability were unrelated to partner choice (Personality and Individual Differences, DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.06.007).
People…
