Similarity between partners in real and perceived personality traits as measured by the Myers-Briggs type indicator.
From 90 couples, 90 male and 90 female subjects, two sets of scores on the four personality dimensions measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) were obtained by letting each person answer each item twice, first in the ordinary way and then as he or she believed the partner would answer the item. Correlations between partners' self-reported scores were all close to zero, whereas the correlations between the partner-reported scores and the self-reported scores were high for both males and females and for all the four dimensions measured by the MBTI, thus indicating that partners were not similar in personality traits, but they had a realistic perception of each other. The results support the hypothesis that mating is random in terms of personality traits.
Nordvik
H
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Department of Psychology, University of Trondheim, Norway.
D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D013850:Thinking