It suggests that strangers hoping to hit it off would do better to play to their similarities rather than trying to impress the other person with attributes which make them unique.

 

To find out how important similarity was to forming relationships researchers from Wellesly and the University of Kansas approached more than 1,500 random³ pairs, including romantic couples, friends and acquaintances, and asked them to complete a survey about their values, prejudices, attitudes and personality traits.

 

The information was then compared to see how similar or different each pair was and to see whether people in longer relationships had more in common.

 

It emerged that all pairings held similar life views even if they had only just met.

 

In a second experiment, the researchers surveyed pairs who had just met in a college classroom setting, and then surveyed the same pairs later. There was virtually no change in beliefs over time suggesting that if couples go into a relationship hoping to change the opinions of the other it is unlikely to work.

 

Prof Bahns from Wellesly College said: "Though the idea that partners influence each other is central in relationships research, we have identified a large domain⁴ in which friends show very little change-- personality, attitudes and values, and a selection of socially-relevant behaviors."

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