Traits and mates: The role of personality in intimate relationships

In this review of personality and intimate relationships, we note that when people rank the traits of ideal partners, kindness and dependability are considered desirable. Romantic partners tend to show positive but weak similarity correlations for personality traits. In terms of the Big Five factors, low Neuroticism, and high Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion are associated with greater relationship satisfaction, whereas high Neuroticism and Openness, and low Agreeableness are associated with relationship dissatisfaction and dissolution. Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence tend to be high in Neuroticism, and low in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Future research should incorporate HEXACO personality variables to a greater extent. Research attention is needed to address the wide variety of romantic relationships that exist today (e.g., LGBTQIA+ relationships, consensual non-monogamy, long-distance).