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Dyadic Dynamic in Generalized Political Attitudes: Homophily, Relationship Satisfaction, and Convergence.
Andreas Miculka1, Roland Imhoff1
1Department of Social and Legal Psychology, University of Mainz, Germany.
International Review of Social Psychology
|April 20, 2026
Summary
Romantic partners share similar political views, but this similarity doesn't impact relationship satisfaction or change over time. This suggests initial partner selection, not convergence, drives ideological congruence in relationships.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Political Psychology
- Relationship Science
Background:
- Generalized political attitudes like conspiracy mentality, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO) are socially significant.
- Dyadic studies on these attitudes within romantic relationships remain under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate couple similarity in generalized political attitudes.
- To determine if attitude similarity predicts relationship satisfaction.
- To examine attitude convergence within couples over time.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Response Surface Analysis on two longitudinal couple datasets.
- Analyzed initial similarity, concurrent and longitudinal prediction of relationship satisfaction, and attitude change.
Main Results:
- Partners demonstrated significant similarity across all measured political attitudes.
- Attitude similarity showed minimal predictive power for relationship satisfaction.
- No evidence of attitude convergence was found; similarity stemmed from initial partner selection.
Conclusions:
- Couple similarity in political attitudes is primarily due to assortative mating, not relationship-driven convergence.
- Ideologically congruent relationships may limit exposure to diverse political views, potentially exacerbating political polarization.
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