New dating sites matches opposites – does that work?

June 29th, 2010

Here’s an interesting one. There’s a new website out there called Opposites Connect that aims to match you up with your complete opposite based on a personality quiz. What a strange concept!

I was recently at a wedding. It was a registry office affair, but lovely nonetheless and the registrar who performed the ceremony said something that really hit a note with me. He said that opposites attract but it’s the things you have in common that keep you together over time.
Think about it. It’s natural to be attracted to our opposites – physically (that’s evolution talking there) as well as mentally and emotionally. There is something very exciting about the unfamiliar when we begin dating someone new. If they were exactly the same as us, we wouldn’t need to spend all that fun time discovering. But longer term? Can two people really sustain a happy relationship if both partners are completely different with nothing in common they’d like to do?

I’ve seen too many couples like that who get together and have children. Their children seem to be the only thing holding them together and when the children grow up, often the relationship breaks or stays together out of habit, with both sides having almost completely separate lives.

I must say I’m more of the complementing parts school of thought than complete opposite school of thought. Trying to get together with someone who’s totally unlike me in any way sounds like a recipe for disaster long term. Nice gimmick, but the only way I think it’ll work is if the personality test is so crap it doesn’t do its job and the site attracts people who think the concept is funny and therefore share a sense of humour.

What do you think? Are complete opposites really suitable for each other over time? Does that indeed dictate a relationship where both sides have separate lives? Is it suitable for some but not others?

Related posts:

1. Blah blah evolutionary psychology blah blah (or: another book defending non-monogamy in men)
2. Marriage sites UK
3. This is what happens when online dating experts watch rom coms
4. Does online dating work?
5. 3D dating or pure escapism?

Entry Filed under: Industry stuff,Relationships and dating