Factors affecting attraction: Filter theory

• Filter theory


  Theory developed by Kerckhoff and Davis to explain how romantic relationships form and develop
• Kerckhoff and Davis compared attitudes and personalities of student couples in short-term and long-term relationships
• Partner choice


  • All have a field of available, entire set of potential romantic partners, all the people we could realistically form a relationship with
  • Not everyone who is available to us is desirable
• 3 main factors that act as filters to narrow down our range of partner choice to a field of desirables


  • Each factor assumes greater or lesser importance at different stages of a relationship
• Social demography (1st level of filter)

  1. Refers to a wide range of factors all of which influence the chances of potential partners meeting each other in the first place

  2. Include geographical location, social class, level of education, ethnic group, religion and etc.

  3. More likely to meet people who are physically close to you and who share several demographic characteristics

  4. Although we might encounter people who live further away, our most meaningful and memorable interactions are with people who are nearby

  5. Key benefit of proximity is accessibility

  6. It doesn't require much effort to meet people who live in the same area, go to the same school/university and etc.

  7. There is a vast range and variety of potential partners, the realistic field is much narrower because our choices are constrained by our social circumstances

  8. Anyone who is too 'different' is discounted as a potential partner

  9. Outcome of this filtering is homogamy -> you are more likely to form a relationship with someone who is socially/culturally similar
• Similarity in attitudes (2nd level of filter)

  1. Partners often share important beliefs and values, partly because the field of availables has already been narrowed by the 1st filter to those who have significant social and cultural characteristics in common

  2. Kerckhoff and Davis found that similarity of attitudes was important to the development of romantic relationships, but only for the couples who had been together less than 18 months

  3. There is a need for partners in the earliest stages of a relationship to agree over basic values, the things that really matter to them

  4. This encourages greater and deeper communication, and promotes self-disclosure

  5. There is considerable evidence that most of us find this similarity attractive, at least to begin with

  6. Byrne described the consistent findings that similarity causes attraction as the law of attraction

  7. If such similarity doesn't exist, then the relationship is likely to fizzle out with a 'I'll call you sometime'
• Complementarity (3rd level of filter)

  1. The 3rd filter concerns the ability of romantic partners to meet each other's needs

  2. 2 partners complement each other when they have traits that the other lacks

  3. E.G, one partner may enjoy making the other laugh, and in turn this partner enjoys being made to laugh

  4. Perhaps 1 partner is more dominant in the relationship than the other

  5. One likes to nurture and the other to be nurtured

  6. Kerkhoff and Davis found that the need for complementarity was more important for the long-term couples

  7. In other words, at a later stage of a relationship, opposites attract

  8. Complementarity is attractive because it gives 2 romantic partners the feeling that together they form a whole, which adds depth to a relationship and makes it more likely to flourish