Research reveals conclusions about whether similar couples are originally similar or gradually become similar

There is a word ' similar couple ', but as a rule of thumb, even if you realize that there are many couples with similar things, do you really have similar personalities and tastes if you live together for many years, or at the beginning Many people may have wondered if many people would marry someone who is similar to them.

Michigan State University has conducted a study to find the answer to this long-standing question.

Spouses do not grow more alike, study finds --ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825131614.htm

A study by Mikhila Humbad and colleagues in a PhD in clinical psychology at Michigan State University, published in Personality and Individual Differences , analyzed data from 1296 couples from data from the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research. bottom. This is the largest survey ever conducted in a similar study examining the similarities in personality traits of married couples.

'Research has shown that couples are more similar than when comparing others so far. This is because couples influence each other over the years, in the first place. It's also possible that people with similar personalities were drawn to each other and married. The purpose of our research was to provide clues to settle this long-standing debate, 'says Humbad.

The 1296 couples have an average length of marriage of 19.8 years, ranging from a minimum of 2 years to a maximum of 39 years, and these couples are asked by the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire . Based on the data obtained by answering the 198-question version, 'Positive emotionality (whether it is easy to feel positive emotions such as accomplishment and happiness)' and 'Negative emotionality (negative feelings such as estrangement and hostility)' Whether or not the personality traits such as 'is it easy to feel emotions)' and 'constraints (traditionalism, cautious, planned, avoiding danger, etc.)' will increase the similarity between the couple as the marriage period increases. Was analyzed by various methods.

As a result, the conclusion is that couples do not have similar personalities as the marriage period is longer, and that 'similar couples' can be explained by choosing people with similar personalities at the stage of marriage. It seems that it has arrived.

However, among various personality traits, only 'aggressiveness' is an exception, and the longer the marriage period, the more similar it becomes. In this regard, Humbad said, 'This is convincing when you think about it. If one of the couples is angry and aggressive, their spouse will react with anger in the same way over the years. Will be aggressive. '

Humbad points out that in the fast-growing marriage brokerage business, many vendors are already trying to match men and women based on 'whether they have similar personalities', but the results of this study are for those marriage brokers. Is likely to be valuable data.

“Marrying someone who looks like you is more likely to convey that trait to your child,” says Humbad. If you think so, even if you think that a child with a 'similar parent and child' looks like a mother or a father, the parents are actually similar, so it may be as similar to both of them. not.