Agreeableness

Attraction

According to now classic research on attraction, one of the leading causes of attraction is similarity. Individuals are attracted to people who are similar, or who they believe are similar, to them. Recent research on helping behavior has provided initial evidence that individuals high in agreeableness rate victims in need of help as more similar to themselves and more likeable. They also treat outgroup members—people who come from different social groups than oneself—similarly to ingroup members—people from one's own social group—in most respects, such as in terms of helping or prejudice. If agreeableness is related to perceptions of similarity, then agreeableness and attraction may be related also. That is, individuals high in agreeableness may find more potential dating targets similar to themselves than do individuals low in agreeableness. This may lead individuals high in agreeableness to finding more others attractive, even when they are relatively dissimilar to themselves.

Recent research has shown that agreeableness is an important characteristic that women want in a potential dating partner. In an experimental study examining whether women are attracted to “nice guys,” women were asked to rate the attractiveness and desirability of men who behaved in prosocial, agreeable ways and of men who did not. Given the same level of physical attractiveness, men who behaved in a prosocial, agreeable way were rated as more attractive and more desirable as a dating and sexual partner. This research provides initial evidence that women look for prosocial motives in their mates, and agreeableness may be an important predictor of this attraction.

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