According To Research, Everyone Must Have A Type Of Ideal Partner

Ideal Couple Illustration (Wesner Rodrigues/Pexels)

JAKARTA - Have your friends ever said that your current lover has a resemblance to his former lover? Don't get angry right away, because according to research, what your friend says may be true.

Research shows that people do have certain types of dating partners, apart from cases like bad endings where someone gives up and avoids a partner from your usual ideal type.

But social psychology researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T) say it's easier said than done. The reason is, the research they did and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows, someone often falls in love with the same type over and over again.

"When a relationship ends it's very natural for someone to break up and feel the need to find a partner with a different type from the previous partner. Our research sees that trend is very strong," said one of the researchers, Yoobin Park, PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts. & Science at U of T as quoted from Sciencedaily, Wednesday, December 1.

With Geoff MacDonald, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at U of T, he compared the personalities of current and former partners of 332 participants of various ages. They found significant personality consistency from one's partner. The consistency of one relationship with another indicates that a person is very likely to have a certain type.

Their data isn't sufficient to pinpoint why, but the aim of this study is not only to prove the tendency to date people who have something in common, but to find ways to maintain a healthy and happy relationship.

From a relationship that has ended you can learn and have strategies to deal with a partner with his personality. If our new partner has the same personality, you should have the capital to start a new, better relationship. On the other hand, having a new partner who looks just like your ex makes you more likely to repeat the same problem over and over again.

Finally it all comes back to you, are you sure you can be happy with a partner who is not much different from your ex?