The long-held theory of romance that opposites attract may be wrong a new study suggests.

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley found similarity rules when people find themselves drawn to potential romantic partners, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported.

In what they refer to as “matching hypothesis,” men and women fall for the potential partners of their own or similar league and desirability.

Although personality and common interests play a factor, like is drawn to like when it comes to instant attraction.

The researchers studied the popularity of 3,000 heterosexual users of a dating site in which popularity was measured by the number of opposite-sex individuals who had sent unsolicited messages to a user.

High- popularity users contacted other popular ones at a greater rate than would be expected by chance, the study found.

Similarly, the less popular users of the site also contacted other low-popularity users.

As a follow-up study, researchers found a similar result where potential mates seek someone in their own league for a date.

“Individuals on the dating market will assess their own self-worth and select partners whose social desirability approximately equals their own,” the researchers concluded.

By Jung Eun-jung

(kristin2j@gmail.com)

Intern reporter