Stirling University study finds opposites DON'T attract in dating
A study has found people who look the same are more likely to be attracted to one another
A speed dating study co-authored by a University of Stirling expert has found opposites don’t attract.
A unique experiment saw 682 participants meet each other for short, unconstrained interactions before rating each other. Previous studies have asked participants to rate faces on computer screens.
Researchers who conducted the speed dating study found people with similar faces rated each other more highly for attractiveness.
They also found facial masculinity and femininity were predictors of attractiveness in face-to-face interactions.
Similar faces
Dr Anthony Lee, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Stirling, who co-authored the study, said: "Essentially what we've found is that people who had similar faces tend to rate each other as more attractive.
"This project was a large speed dating study where 682 participants met each other for short, unconstrained interactions before rating each other.
“Forming meaningful relationships with others is a fundamental human driver and understanding the mechanism of attraction can help facilitate or maintain romantic and sexual relationships."
Online dating boom
Dr Lee explained that love may be easier to find - but that we're still going for people we find familiar: "The whole dating game has changed with the boom of online dating.
"Before the way that you'd meet someone was through mutual friends or shared interests, but with online dating, you're exposed to a much wider dating pool of people.
"But it seems to be the case that people are still preferring others who are similar to them.
"We're meeting more people and the only restriction is if they're in the same area as you - it's interesting to see how that's shaping relationships going forward."