Filter Theory

• Filter theory was proposed by Kirk off and Davies in 1962.
• The first filter in the series is social demography, which is the field of people available to us to start a relationship with.
• The second filter in the series is attitudes, which is more likely to come in contact with certain people due to similar attitudes.
• The third filter in the series is complementarity, which is the need for matching with people who can provide for our emotional needs.
• The study used student couples, which may limit its generalisability to populations outside of young, educated Americans.
• The study may lack temporal validity due to the increasing acceptance of interracial relationships and the decrease in gating factors provided by traditional filters.
• Goff and Davies conducted a longitudinal study over seven months to investigate the views of student couples on the importance of similarity and complementarity in a long-term relationship.
• According to Taylor's 2010 findings, 85 percent of Americans who married in 1998 married from within their own ethnic group, suggesting that filter fear does work in the real world.
• The study found that similarity of attitudes was the most important factor in the success of short-term relationships, while complementarity was the most important factor for the success of long-term relationships.
• An advantage of filter fear is that it allows both partners to provide emotional needs and complement each other's personal failings with their own advantages, linking to ideas of social exchange theory.