Getting on with your partner's family is a big thing but it isn't unusual to hear about people not seeing eye-to-eye with their in-laws.
Well, it turns out, there is a reason behind it (and the reason isn’t as simple as they just don’t like you).
A new study, published in
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, found that women and their families assess the other half according to different criteria.
Metro reports that researchers asked women to rank more than 100 qualities in terms of importance for their own other half.
They then asked the women to rank the same qualities in terms of importance for their sister’s other half.
via GIPHY
For both, the following characteristics were listed: faithful, loyal, honest, reliable and trustworthy. That’s where the common ground stopped.
It turns out that those asked also wanted their sister’s partner to be empathetic, responsible, helpful, sensible and kind.
As for their own significant other, they wanted them to be charming, hilarious, fun and good in the bedroom.
So basically, these are the qualities that someone might find attractive but their family considers irresponsible or unappealing and not what they had in mind as a lifelong companion for their child.
While the experiment only looked at women, we're guessing that some of the qualities that men would look for in a love interest might not be in keeping with what their family have in mind either.
