Have you ever wondered why, when you promised yourself after your last break up that you’d never date someone like your ex, you end up dating the exact same person in a different body? Well, a recent study shows that we do actually have a type, and it’s most probably your ex.
Now in all fairness, not everyone falls in to the trap of self-sabotaging by always ending up with the same type of romantic partner who will hurt you in the same or similar way to your ex, the study shows that some people do – and it’s human nature.
“In a newly published study, researchers used the longitudinal German Family Panel study to assess where more than 12,000 survey participants fitted with the "big five" personality traits — openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Over nine years, the researchers tracked the relationship status of these people, who had to pop the rather unusual question to partners of whether they would mind filling out the same personality questionnaire for the good of science.”
“After nine years and thousands of questionnaires, the researchers ended up with 332 participants who had been in relationships with at least two different romantic partners who were both happy to participate in the study. That's a pretty hefty drop in sample size, but more than enough to draw firm conclusions from the data.”
The results revealed just how similar the personalities of the participants’ partners were to past partners. So, whether this is good or bad news, most of us will always date someone who is the same or similar to our previous partner, no matter how much we think we’ve changed over the years with experience.
The study also revealed another interesting fact; that when choosing a partner, we’re most likely to choose someone who is similar to us. So, if you like spending time in nature and being outdoors, you’re not going to run and pick the homebody who hates hiking.
“Seeking out a little of yourself in your partners may help explain why our own personalities tend to be relatively stable when interacting with friends and loved ones. It's a lot easier to seek relationships that allow us to hold onto our existing ideas of what we are like,” the study revealed.
