Filter Theory

• Filter theory 


  • Choose romantic partners by using a series of filters that narrow down ’field of availables’ from which we might eventually make our choice
  • Different filters are prominent at diff stages of partner selection
  • During the early stages of courtship, demographic similarities are likely to be the most important factors in initiating a relationship
  • As the relationship develops a similarity of attitudes and underlying values become more important in determining whether the relationship continues
  • Partners are assessed in terms of whether they are compatible
• Social demography


  • Variables which determine the likelihood of an individuals meeting in the first place
  • Social circumstances reduce the range of people that are realistically available to meet
  • This range is already fairly restricted as people are more likely to come into contact with people from our own ethnic, social and educational groups and those who live geographically close to us
  • These are people we feel more similar to and so are mor at ease- find them more attractive as there’s more in common
• Similarity of needs 


  • Agreement on basic values and attitudes
  • Kerchoff and Davis: similarity in attitudes and values was of central importance at the start of a relationship and was the best predictor of the relationship becoming stable
  • Through their disclosures to each other individuals can weigh up their decisions about whether to continue or terminate their relationship
  • Partners who are very different to the individual in terms of attitudes and values are not considered suitable for a continuing relationship- filtered out from the field of possible long-term partners
• Complementarity of needs 


  • People who have different needs like each other because they provide each other with mutual satisfaction
  • Important as finding a partner who complements them ensures that their own needs are likely to be met
  • Winch: investigated 25 married couples in the US suggested that social needs should be complementary rather than similar if marriages are to work
  • If one partner was low in a particular attribute then the other should be high- long term relationships people are attracted to others who needs are harmonious with their own rather than conflicting with them
• Key study: Kerchoff and Davis Procedure

  • Longitudinal study of 94 dating couples at Duke Uni in the US
  • Each partner in the couple completed 2 questionnaires assessing the degree to which they shared attitudes and values and the degree of need complementarity
  • 7 months after the initial testing the couples completed a further questionnaire assessing how close they felt to their partner compared to how they felt beginning of the study
  • Researchers believed that this would indicate ‘progress towards permanence’ in the relationship
• Key study: Kerchoff and davis findings


  • Initial analysis of the results only similarity appeared to be related to partner closeness
  • When researchers divided the couples into short and long-term a difference emerged
  • For the couples who have been seeing each other for less than 18 months (short term)- similarity of attitudes and values was the most significant predictor of how close they felt to their partner
  • For those who had been dating for more than 18 months (long-term)- only complementary of needs was predictive of how close each individual felt to their partner
• Lack of research support for the filter theory

  • In their study 330 couples went through the same procedures as the Kerckhoff and Davis study
  • No evidence that similarity of attitudes and values or complementarity of needs influenced progress to permanence in relationships
  • No significant relationship between the length of the couples’ relationships and influence of these diff variables
  • Levinger suggest that the questionnaires used wouldn’t have been appropriate given the changes in social values and courtship patterns that had occurred in the intervening years between the two studies
• Filtering process


  Allows people to make predictions about their future interactions and avoid investing in a relationship that won't work
• Filtering process


  1. Each person discloses bits of info about themselves

  2. Making enquiries about the other person

  3. Partners decide to continue with a relationship or make a decision that it will not work

  4. Stops making the wrong choices and then having to live with the consequences
• Value of filtering process

  • It stops making the wrong choices and then having to live with the consequences
• Perceived similarity may be more imporant than actual similarity

  • Consistent with the assumptions of Kerckhoff and Davis’ second stage of the filtering process some researchers have suggested that perceived similarity predicts attraction more strongly than does actual similarity
  • Tidwell: tested this claim in the context of a speed-dating event by measuring actual and perceived similarity using a questionnaire- concluded that it was perceived rather than actual similarity that predicted romantic liking for these couples
• Perceived similarity may be more imporant than actual similarity

  • Consistent with the assumptions of Kerckhoff and Davis’ second stage of the filtering process some researchers have suggested that perceived similarity predicts attraction more strongly than does actual similarity
  • Tidwell: tested this claim in the context of a speed-dating event by measuring actual and perceived similarity using a questionnaire- concluded that it was perceived rather than actual similarity that predicted romantic liking for these couples
• Complementarity of needs may not be important

  • Dijskra and Barelds: studied 760 singles on a dating site (476 women, 284 men) who were looking for a long-term mate
  • Participants’ personalities were measured and they were then asked to rate personality characteristics they desired in an ideal mate
  • Researchers found that although initially ppts indicated that they desired a complementary partner rather than a similar one- there were strong correlations between their own personality and their ideal partner’s personality
  • Supports similarity attraction
• Problem for filter theory

  • Kerckhoff and Davis’ study assumes that relationships progress when partners discover shared attitudes and values with their partner and the possession of needs that complement their own- no longer be the case
  • Thorton and Young-DeMarco: found evidence of changed attitudes towards relationships in young American adults over a period of a few decades
  • Included a weakening of the normative imperative to marry, attitudes towards mothers working outside the homes and more egalitarian attitudes towards gender roles in marriages