Opposites Attract in Financial Matters, Study Shows

We often hear husbands (and men in general) complain about how their partners are not to be trusted with a credit card come sales season, or women saying about their partners they would pay a fortune for some gadget or device. Contrary to appearances, no matter how much they complain, spendthrifts will always be attracted to big spenders, a new study reveals, as cited by LiveScience.

Opposites attract and that’s a fact: we often fall for or choose a partner that is unlike us in many respects, even if we like to believe we would never date such a guy / girl. Except for the case of good looks – a previous study determined hotties stuck together as a rule – the rule of the ying and yang applies without exception. The same goes for one’s attitude to money and spending in a relationship, the latest study has learned.

Scott Rick of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business led the study, which included 1,000 participants, married and single adults. All of them, no matter whether they qualified as spenders or penny pinchers, revealed they were unhappy with their emotional response to spending money, with the former feeling remorse for overdoing it and the latter pain of having to spend even the tiniest amount of money. The study has also revealed that, “The more dissatisfied they were, the more likely each participant was to be attracted to individuals with opposing spending views.” as the aforementioned publication writes.

Nevertheless, a marriage between a spendthrift and a spender is not the solution, the study has also learned. While a spender-spender union might result in bigger debts and lower living standards, pairing a spender and a spendthrift will result in more fighting and increased levels of dissatisfaction on both sides. Even more ironically, the study has also revealed that unmarried people tend to believe what they’re looking for in a potential partner for life is someone who shares their attitude towards spending money.

“Even though a spendthrift will have greater debt when married to another spendthrift than when married to a tightwad, the spendthrift is still less likely to argue about money with the other spendthrift.” Scott Rick explains. “People tend to have poor introspective awareness of what they will initially find attractive when actually encountering potential mates. Our findings are consistent with the commonly observed disconnect between what people say they look for in an ideal mate and the characteristics of actual mates to whom they are attracted.” the professor concludes by saying.