The way people choose potential romantic partners may rely on the same mental decision-making system used for many other types of choices, according to a recent study. The study found that a computational model accurately predicted both who people chose as potential partners and how quickly they made that decision. This research cognitive science.
Researchers have been trying to understand what drives romantic attraction for decades. Scientists have learned a lot about what characteristics people like and what characteristics are deal-breakers, but they know less about the mental processes that combine those preferences to make the final decision. The current study sought to address this issue by considering whether romantic partner choice can be explained by a broader theory of human decision-making known as psychological value theory.
Rather than assuming that romantic decisions are fundamentally unique, this theory proposes that people evaluate potential partners using the same value-based mechanisms employed in many everyday judgments and choices. A research team led by Dale J. Cohen at the University of North Carolina Wilmington conducted two experiments using hypothetical romantic partner profiles.
In the first experiment, participants compared partners described by a single trait, allowing researchers to determine how individual traits influenced a partner’s value. In the second experiment, participants simultaneously rated partners described by multiple characteristics. This allowed the researchers to investigate how people combine desirable and undesirable traits when making romantic decisions. The researchers measured both participants’ choices and the time it took to make each decision.
This finding provided strong support for psychological value theory. In both experiments, the model successfully predicted participants’ choices and reaction times, explaining more than 85% of the variation in behavior. This level of accuracy suggests that the model captured many of the cognitive processes involved when people evaluate potential romantic partners.
The model was able to not only identify which partners participants chose, but also predict how quickly those decisions would be made. The second experiment revealed particularly important insights into how people evaluate the characteristics of multiple partners at once. Traditional theories often assume that individuals mentally add up all positive and negative qualities to calculate their overall value. However, the results suggested a different process.
As the authors explained, participants “integrate multiple features through a biased averaging algorithm, with the most positive features holding disproportionate influence.” In other words, one highly desirable trait may have a greater influence on partner selection than a combination of several moderately desirable traits.
Cohen’s team concluded: “These findings demonstrate that initial romantic partner selection employs a generic value-based decision-making mechanism and provides a computational framework that can be extended to model partner selection in more complex real-world situations.” The researchers argue that understanding these processes could help explain how people get through the early stages of a romantic relationship and why certain traits have a big impact on first impressions.
However, this study has important limitations. Participants rated a hypothetical partner’s description rather than interacting with a real person. Real-world romantic decisions often involve emotional chemistry, social dynamics, and contextual factors that cannot be fully captured in laboratory experiments.
The study, “Psychological Value Theory: Predicting Initial Romantic Partner Selection from a Generic Computational Cognitive Model of Value-Based Choice,” was authored by Dale J. Cohen, Tyler D. White, and Shanhong Luo. Published in 2026.
