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We often have our friends telling us that “So, what type of girls or guys you like?” But, have you ever wondered that having a type could actually be a thing and is not something over the top? Apparently, having a type is a thing and not something that we make up on our own.
A new study (R) conducted by the researchers from the University of Toronto found that some people do have a type that they incline towards while dating someone. Additionally, if they do tend to face a bad relationship, following that, they will tend to gravitate towards their said type instead.
If you are done with a bad relationship and have the thought that you are dating someone similar to your “type”, you are not the only person in that.
But, the researchers from the University of Toronto did find that this process is quite easier said than done. The findings of the study were published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggesting that people have the inclination of dating same kind of person over and over again.
Yoobin Park, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T, who is also the lead author of the study stated saying that it is common for a person after a bad breakup trying to attribute the breakup with the personality of the individual they were with. And the next thought is always to avoid dating same kind of people.
This study focuses on how even with the strong mindset of not dating someone similar to one’s type; it is human nature for some to incline towards the same kind of people itself.
The study was conducted with ongoing data from a multiyear study conducted on couples and families combining people of similar age groups. Park, along with co-author Geoff MacDonald who is a professor in the Department of Psychology at U of T delved into comparing the personalities of current as well as past partners including 332 people.
What they primarily found was the significance consistency in terms of the personalities in the partners of the individuals. Park suggested saying that the tendency in this is more than just dating someone similar to your own personality.
The participants in this particular study alongside the sample of their current and past partners were asked to assess their own personality traits concerning their agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
Some of the questions and topics of discussion involved in the polls included the following:
- “I am usually modest and reserved”
- “I am interested in many different kinds of things”
- “I make plans and carry them out”
The participants were asked to rate their own agreements or disagreements on the said topic rating each of these sentences out of the five-point scale.
With the responses collected, both Park and MacDonald’s assessed the responses and found that the current partners of the individuals did describe themselves much similar like the past partners.
Addressing this, MacDonald stated saying that the consistency from one relationship to the next one is what suggests that people do indeed have a type. Their findings fail to recognize why people’s partners tend to exhibit similar patterns in their personalities.
They also found that by examining in first person testimonials of someone’s partners instead of having blind reliance on someone’s own description of them did create a state of biasness in the results as found in the other studies.
Park suggested saying that their study and the findings are quite rigorous in the sense that it was not based out of an individual describing their prior and present partners; they did have real time responses from the partners themselves.
The researchers of the study believe that finding this does ensure to keep the relationships not just happy but healthy as well.
Bring all the thoughts together, Park suggested saying that in every single relationship, people come up with creative and effective ways to work along with their partner’s personality. But, if you know that your current partner’s personality is similar to the one you were dating before, it become easier for you to transfer those skills along to the current relationships for a better footing.
Park also believes that this does require further and more in-depth study because sometimes what happens is the strategies that people opt to adjust with the personalities of their partners are negative. They need to find better results in how meeting someone similar to an ex-partner is a possible plus and how much it can affect a new relationship that one delves into.
Concluding it all, Park also finally suggested that if you are finding the similar kind of problems in the relationship after relationship, chances are that one is gravitating towards the same kind of personality and looking for someone similar to their “type” instead of just randomly dating someone new. This is what could be the factor contributing to the problems altogether.
