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Wu Youyou1,2, David Stillwell3, H Andrew Schwartz4
11 Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge.
Psychological Science
|January 7, 2017
Summary
People often share similar personalities with friends and romantic partners. This study used novel methods to overcome biases, finding significant personality similarity in both friendships and romantic relationships.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Personality Science
Background:
- Individuals often exhibit similarities in various traits like age, education, and attitudes.
- Despite this, empirical evidence for personality similarity between friends and partners has been limited.
- Previous research may be confounded by the reference-group effect in self- and peer-reports.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate personality similarity between friends and romantic partners.
- To address the limitations of traditional self-report and peer-report measures.
- To explore the impact of the reference-group effect on personality similarity research.
Main Methods:
- Utilized two novel behavior-based personality measures.
- Circumvented the reference-group effect inherent in traditional questionnaires.
- Analyzed large datasets of romantic partners (n=1,101) and friends (n=46,483).
Main Results:
- Found significant evidence for personality similarity in romantic partners (rs = .20–.47).
- Demonstrated significant personality similarity among friends (rs = .12–.31).
- Behavior-based measures yielded robust findings for interpersonal personality similarity.
Conclusions:
- Personality similarity exists between romantic partners and friends.
- The reference-group effect likely explains previous null findings.
- Methodological advancements are crucial for accurate personality assessment in relationships.
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