Everyone has their own expectations when it comes what they look for in a romantic relationship.
Sometimes they can just be physical, like wanting to have your partner be taller than you, or it can be just wanting them to say 'thank you' for doing the housework.
But a recent study has discovered six recurring dealbreakers within long-term and short-term relationships.
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A new research paper titled, ‘Six “red flags” in relationships: From being dangerous to gross and being apathetic to unmotivated’ was published this month in Volume 204 of Personality and Individual Differences.
The researchers had looked at previously-conducted studies and found that many focused on 'dealmakers' and what is most important to people in their relationships, rather than what they didn't want.
So, in order to identify these ‘red flags', they analysed a sample size of 285 college students.
115 of this sample were male, while 170 were female. 95 percent of this sample were also reportedly heterosexual and 50 percent were in committed relationships at the time of the questioning.
They referred to 49 dealbreakers from a previous study, with each participant being asked to form a ranking of various different dealbreakers.
The researchers then named the six worst-ranked accordingly, which were found to be ‘Gross’, ‘Addicted’, ‘Clingy’, ‘Promiscuous’, ‘Apathetic’ and ‘Unmotivated’.
Those who were in short-term relationships ranked ‘Gross’ as the worst.
This was then shortly followed by ‘Clingy’.
However, those in the sample who were in committed, long-term relationships concluded that being ‘Apathetic’ and ‘Unmotivated’ were their biggest dealbreakers.
And women were largely turned off by 'Unmotivated', whereas as men were more put off by 'Promiscuous' partners.
According to the research, women were the ones who were 'more sensitive' to dealbreakers, which lead researcher, Zsófia Csajbók, said was 'consistent with evolutionary theories'.
“This is understandable because the potential cost of a bad relationship for women is considerably higher than for men. "Women may end up with children who they have to bring up alone, and potentially also have to deal with the burden of reputation management.” she added.
Csajbók said that people should consider possible red flags in their partners.
"For almost the last four decades, mate choice research was focusing on the positive, dealmaker characteristics of mate preferences." she said.
“However, we were also selected to avoid costly mating mistakes. So, in the last couple of years, we just started to realise how influential red flags are in the dating scene.”
By considering what you don't want in a partner, Csajbók says it can help you avoid a 'great deal of heartbreak' and will help you pick 'more suitable partners'.
Topics: Sex and Relationships
Ella Scott