Were Couples Who Got Married More Similar in Personality?  

A 20-Year Analysis of Matching Data

A 20-year analysis of matching data compared 1,321 married couples with 85,676 non-married meeting pairs.

The Korean Marriage Culture Institute analyzed personality test and matching data accumulated over 20 years by Couple.net. The results showed that couples who eventually got married had, on average, smaller differences in personality scores than meeting pairs who did not marry.

Based on data from 2006 to 2026, the institute compared personality similarity between 1,321 married couples and 85,676 non-married meeting pairs.

Married Couples Were Slightly More Similar in Personality

This analysis compared scores across eight personality factors: extroversion, empathy, responsibility, planning, rationality, conservatism, emotional stability, and maturity.

The smaller the difference in personality scores between two people, the more similar their personality profiles were considered to be. A higher personality score does not mean a better personality.

The average personality score difference among married couples was 0.680. For non-married meeting pairs, the average was 0.751, showing a difference of 0.071 between the two groups.

This means that the personality score difference among married couples was about 9.5% smaller than that of non-married meeting pairs.

The average personality score difference across all meeting pairs was 0.721.

Analyzing the Relationship Between Personality Similarity and Marriage

The analysis found that couples who got married had, on average, slightly more similar personality profiles than meeting pairs who did not marry.

However, this result alone does not mean that they married because their personalities were similar. This analysis does not establish a causal relationship between personality similarity and marriage.

When choosing a spouse, many factors work together, including personality, values, living environment, socioeconomic conditions, timing of the meeting, and the process of building the relationship.

Also, having similar personalities does not necessarily mean higher marital satisfaction or happiness after marriage.

The significance of this analysis lies in the fact that it used 20 years of real matching data to examine whether there was a difference in personality similarity between couples who got married and meeting pairs who did not.