Opposites do not attract when it comes to romance.
Opposites do not attract when it comes to love
An analysis of 130 personality traits across millions of couples has revealed that the old adage about partners isn't actually true.
A team at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US combined data from almost 200 previous studies dating back more than a century with their own research.
They examined dozens of traits and discovered that political and religious attitudes and levels of education were very similar between pairs.
Partners were also likely to share characteristics linked to substance use - with drinkers and teetotallers tending to couple up with those who had similar habits.
There were also links between height, weight, medical conditions and personality traits.
The team said there was "no compelling evidence" to suggest that opposites do attract.
Study author Tanya Horwitz said: "Our findings demonstrate that birds of a feather are indeed more likely to flock together."