Los Angeles - You may think opposites attract when it comes to finding the perfect partner - but in fact, the opposite is true.
Single men and women are drawn to potential mates who are in their league in terms of looks and desirability, according to a study.
And they are much less likely to pick a partner who comes from a different social or economic background - putting Hollywood love stories such as Pretty Woman and My Fair Lady firmly in the realm of fiction.
Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley monitored the number of unsolicited messages received by 3,000 members of an online dating website.
While personality traits and common interests played a factor, their analysis revealed that high-popularity users contacted other popular users at a rate greater than would be expected by chance.
Similarly, the less popular users of the site also contacted other low- popularity users.
In their report, the researchers claimed the results proved that opposites do not attract at all - and that like is drawn towards like. They said: “Individuals on the dating market will assess their own self-worth and select partners whose social desirability approximately equals their own.
“The most striking prediction is that undesirable individuals will choose undesirable partners.”
The researchers then conducted a follow-up study of more than a million users and found a similar result - concluding that when it comes to dating, potential mates stick to someone in their own league.
Another recent study in the US produced similar results, but found that single men and women liked to claim that they were attracted to someone who was their opposite.
Hundreds of members of an online dating site were asked whether they were looking for someone who complemented them, or resembled them.
Their answers showed most had a marked preference for someone with the same personality in terms of traits including neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
However, 87.5 percent of the participants still claimed they wanted to find a partner with the opposite personality traits to their own.
The researchers suggested that many liked the romantic notion that opposites attract, even if they did not apply it in real life. - Daily Mail