We often list the qualities we most desire in a partner—our deal-makers when we think about the kind of person we’d like to date. But we also provide our deal-breakers—qualities that will disqualify some body being a dating prospect, regardless how a great many other wonderful characteristics they will have. There’s been a lot of research on deal-makers, but until recently, very little on deal-breakers. In a number of studies, Peter Jonason and peers investigated the essential relationship that is common and exactly how they affect dating alternatives. 1

Exactly what are the many deal-breakers that are common both women and men?

The researchers just wanted to get a general sense of what traits people were likely to see as deal-breakers in the first study. They surveyed 92 university students who had been expected to record their individual deal breakers for long- and short-term relationships. Almost all of the pupils didn’t title that many—an average of just below five deal-breakers for long-lasting relationships, and three for short-term relationships.

That very first research created a listing of 49 feasible deal-breakers. A separate sample of 295 students rated the extent to which they felt that each of those 49 traits was a deal-breaker for them in a second study.

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