We examined patterns of trait similarity (assortative mating) in married couples in four cultures, using both self-reports and spouse ratings on versions of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. There was evidence of a subtle but pervasive perceived contrast bias in the spouse-rating data. However, there was strong agreement across methods of assessment and moderate agreement across cultures in the pattern of results. Most assortment effects were small, but correlations exceeding .40 were seen for a subset of traits, chiefly from the Openness and Agreeableness domains. Except in Russia, where more positive assortment was seen for younger couples, comparisons of younger and older cohorts showed little systematic difference. This suggested that mate selection, rather than convergence over time, accounted for similarity. Future research on personality similarity in dyads can utilize different designs but should assess personality at both domain and the facet levels.

National Institute on Aging NIH DHHS USA

See more in PubMed

Boomsma DI, de Geus EJC, Vink JM, Stubbe JH, Distel MA, Hottenga JJ, et al. Netherlands Twin Register: From twins to twin families. Twin Research and Human Genetics. 2006;9:849–857. PubMed

Boomsma DI, Vink JM, van Beijsterveldt TC, de Geus EJ, Beem AL, Mulder EJ, et al. Netherlands Twin Register: a focus on longitudinal research. Twin Research and Human Genetics. 2002;5:401–406. PubMed

Botwin MD, Buss DM, Shackelford TK. Personality and mate preferences: Five factors in mate selection and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality. 1997;65:107–136. PubMed

Bratko D, Butkovic A. Family study of sensation seeking. Personality and Individual Differences. 2003;35:1559–1570.

Buss DM. Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 1989;12:1–49.

Buss DM, Barnes M. Preferences in human mate selection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1986;50:559–570.

Buss DM, Shackelford TK. Susceptibility to infidelity in the first year of marriage. Journal of Research in Personality. 1997;31:193–221.

Carson RC. Interaction concepts of personality. Aldine; Chicago: 1969.

Caspi A, Herbener ES, Ozer DJ. Shared experiences and the similarity of personalities: A longitudinal study of married couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1992;62:281–291. PubMed

Costa PT, Jr., McCrae RR. Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources; Odessa, FL: 1992.

Costa PT, Jr., Terracciano A, McCrae RR. Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2001;81:322–331. PubMed

Digman JM. Personality structure: Emergence of the Five-Factor Model. Annual Review of Psychology. 1990;41:417–440.

Distel MA, Ligthart L, Willemsen G, Nyholt DR, Trull TJ, Boomsma DI. Personality, health and lifestyle in a questionnaire family study: A comparison between highly cooperative and less cooperative families. Twin Research and Human Genetics. 2007;10:348–353. PubMed

Eysenck HJ. Genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences: The three major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality. 1990;58:245–262. PubMed

Farley FH, Mueller CB. Arousal, personality, and assortative mating in marriage: Generalizability and cross-cultural factors. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. 1978;4:50–53. PubMed

Figueredo AJ, Sefcek JA, Jones DN. The ideal romantic partner personality. Personality and Individual Differences. 2006;41:431–441.

Glicksohn J, Golan H. Personality, cognitive style and assortative mating. Personality and Individual Differences. 2001;30:1199–1209.

Gruber-Baldini AL, Schaie KW, Willis SL. Similarity in married couples: A longitudinal study of mental abilities and rigidity-flexibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1995;69:191–203. PubMed

Han K, Weed NC, Butcher JN. Dyadic agreement on the MMPI-2. Personality and Individual Differences. 2003;35:603–615.

Harris MS. Bangladesh. In: Ember M, Ember CR, editors. Countries and their cultures. Vol. 1. Macmillan Reference USA; New York: 2001. pp. 167–181.

Hoekstra HA, Ormel J, De Fruyt F. Handleiding NEO Persoonlijkheids-vragenlijsten NEO-PI-R en NEO-FFI [Manual for NEO Personality Inventories NEO-PI-R and NEO-FFI] Swets & Zeitlinger; Lisse, The Netherlands: 1996.

Hofstede G. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. 2nd ed. Sage; Thousand Oaks, CA: 2001.

H⊆ebí ková M. NEO osobnostní inventár (podle NEO-PI-R P. T. Costy a R. R. McCraee) [NEO Personality Inventory (according to Revised NEO Personality Inventory by P. T. Costa and R. R. McCrae)] Vydalo Testcentrum; Praha: 2004.

Kelly EL, Conley JJ. Personality and compatibility: A prospective analysis of marital stability and marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1987;52:27–40. PubMed

Kenny DA. Interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis. Guilford; New York: 1994. PubMed

Lake RIE, Eaves LJ, Maes HHM, Heath AC, Martin NG. Further evidence against the environmental transmission of individual differences in Neuroticism from a collaborative study of 45,850 twins and relatives on two continents. Behavior Genetics. 2000;30:223–244. PubMed

Luo S, Klohnen EC. Assortative mating and marital quality in newlyweds: A couple-centered analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2005;88:304–326. PubMed

Martin TA, Costa PT, Jr., Oryol VE, Rukavishnikov AA, Senin IG. Applications of the Russian NEO-PI-R. In: McCrae RR, Allik J, editors. The Five-Factor Model of personality across cultures. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers; New York: 2002. pp. 253–269.

Mascie-Taylor CG. Spouse similarity for IQ and personality and convergence. Behavior Genetics. 1989;19:223–227. PubMed

McCrae RR. Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin. 1996;120:323–337. PubMed

McCrae RR, Costa PT, Jr., H⊆ebí ková M, Urbánek T, Martin TA, Oryol VE, et al. Age differences in personality traits across cultures: Self-report and observer perspectives. European Journal of Personality. 2004;18:143–157.

McCrae RR, Costa PT, Jr., Lima MP, Simões A, Ostendorf F, Angleitner A, et al. Age differences in personality across the adult life span: Parallels in five cultures. Developmental Psychology. 1999;35:466–477. PubMed

McCrae RR, Costa PT, Jr., Martin TA, Oryol VE, Rukavishnikov AA, Senin IG, et al. Consensual validation of personality traits across cultures. Journal of Research in Personality. 2004;38:179–201.

McCrae RR, Martin TA, Costa PT., Jr. Age trends and age norms for the NEO Personality Inventory-3 in adolescents and adults. Assessment. 2005;12:363–373. PubMed

McCrae RR, Stone SV, Fagan PJ, Costa PT., Jr. Identifying causes of disagreement between self-reports and spouse ratings of personality. Journal of Personality. 1998;66:285–313. PubMed

McCrae RR, Terracciano A, 78 Members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project Universal features of personality traits from the observer's perspective: Data from 50 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2005;88:547–561. PubMed

Nagoshi CT, Johnson RC, Honbo KAM. Assortative mating for cognitive abilities, personality, and attitudes: Offspring from the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition. Personality and Individual Differences. 1992;13:883–891.

Penrose LS. Mental illness in husband and wife: A contribution to the study of assortative mating in man. Psychiatric Quarterly Supplement. 1944;18:161–166.

Plomin R. Review of the book IQ and human intelligence. American Journal of Human Genetics. 1999;65:1476–1477.

Streyffeler LL, McNally RJ. Fundamentalists and liberals: Personality characteristics of Protestant Christians. Personality and Individual Differences. 1998;24:579–580.

Tracey TJG, Ryan JM, Jaschik-Herman B. Complementarity of interpersonal circumplex traits. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2001;27:786–797.

Watson D, Klohnen EC, Casillas A, Simms EN, Haig J, Berry DS. Match makers and deal breakers: Analyses of assortative mating in newlywed couples. Journal of Personality. 2004;72:1029–1068. PubMed

Wenzlaff RM, Prohaska ML. When misery prefers company: Depression, attributions, and responses to others' moods. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 1989;25:220–233.

Yang J, McCrae RR, Costa PT., Jr. Adult age differences in personality traits in the United States and the People's Republic of China. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. 1998;53B:P375–P383. PubMed

Zuckerman M. Sensation seeking: Beyond the optimal level of arousal. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; Hillsdale, NJ: 1979.