Opposites attract is more a scientific principle
than a romantic one
Minh Tan
Sometimes you hear people explain how two seemingly opposite people are together with “opposites attract”. That’s balony!
As a species, we’re attracted to those who are like us, whether it’s in romantic relationships, or just social ones where racism and discrimination is a huge factor in societies world wide. Obviously, some opposite features are nice and interesting. We have a curious element in us that loves that. But where seemingly complete opposites attract, it’s usually more out of a match of needs and wants, like how one competitive person may not want to have to share that life with another. Careers rather than athletics and such is usually where you’d see that more, like maybe with two doctors who have heavy career demands, or not want to sacrifice internship opportunities out of Med School to be with someone else who has one but wasn’t willing to give up theirs.
Also, you look at where people meet and get together. Church used to be the common place for that. That’s a huge factor in life you’d have in common. These days, computer matching by personalities, which works on more similarities and some differences, like with Myers-Briggs, is the main successful way to meet for relationships. It’s got a better marriage and smaller divorce rate than relationships that start out from church meetings. Either way, they work on commonalities, not differences.
So this whole opposites attracts thing, it’s more a scientific principle than a romantic one. It’s not perfect like the be all and end all, but it’s more one than the other.
Digital Citizen 