Ah romance. The first look, glance, touch… That date, that ring, that wedding. It all seems like something out of a fairy tale. Magical and ‘fated’. That is the fantasy. Alas the reality is much drier than that. Turns out that science says we don’t select mates just because we’ve been fated by the gods. Instead there is growing evidence that we select mates who have similar DNA as we do.

We know that the term opposites attract has now been disapproved by science. In fact studies show that similarities attracts more. But I’m not talking about looking for people that are similar to us on the surface (I’m looking at the eerie “boyfriend twin” trend hitting the market). We’re going to a deeper level here!

A study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that we might be subconsciously selecting mates based on how closely their DNA matches our own.

Yep… Researchers looked at the DNA of 825 (heterosexual, white) American couples, focusing on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms – places in the DNA that are known to differ among humans. They then compared each subject’s polymorphisms to that of his or her partner and to other individuals in the study. The results showed that their DNA was more similar to their mate than to other subjects.

However don’t let this be your new guide for finding a mate because researchers found an association three times stronger in couples that have a comparable education level to their partner than those that have similar genes. In other words, having a similar education level was shown to be a better match than similar DNA. So perhaps the idea of finding your future partner in college is not such a crazy idea after all, eh?