Hot: The Berkeley study found that the more popular the individual the more a similarly popular individual would be attracted to them.
When it comes to love, there are no hard and fast rules though many people follow the age-old theory that opposites attract.
But now a study has found that more often that not, similarity rules the day.
Researchers at Berkeley found that people are drawn to potential romantic partners if they are of their own or similar league and desirability, which they called the 'matching hypothesis'.
Of course personality traits and common interests play a factor but for that instant attraction, like is drawn towards like, putting paid to the phrase, 'You're out of my league'.
For their research, the authors of the study turned - as most singletons do today - to online dating sites.
They measured the popularity of more than 3,000 heterosexual users of a site and looked at the popularity of each.
Popularity was defined by the number of opposite-sex individuals who had sent unsolicited messages to a user.
Analyses indicated that high-popularity users contacted other popular users at a rate greater than would be expected by chance.
Similarly, the less popular users of the site also contacted other low-popularity users.
The researchers then conducted a follow-up study of more than a million users and found a similar result - when it comes to dating, potential mates stick to someone in their own league.
The authors found that: 'Individuals on the dating market will assess their own self-worth and select partners whose social desirability approximately equals their own.
'Using data collected in the laboratory and from users of a popular online dating site, the authors found evidence for matching based on self-worth, physical attractiveness, and popularity, but to different degrees and not always at the same stage of the dating process.
'The most striking prediction is that undesirable individuals will choose undesirable partners.'
虽然许多人都遵循“相异相吸”这一老话，但情场上其实并没有铁的法则。
如今一项研究发现，大多数时候，是相似的人之间互相吸引。
伯克利大学的研究人员发现，如果潜在恋爱对象的魅力指数和自己是同一水平的，那么他们更容易互相吸引，研究人员将这称为“配对假说”。
诚然，个性特质和共同的兴趣也会有影响，但是就像一见钟情的瞬间吸引力一样，人们也可以立刻觉察到“咱俩不是一路人”。
为了进行这一研究，研究人员和现在的许多单身人士一样，求助于在线约会网站。
他们测评了一个约会网站3000多名异性恋用户的魅力指数，然后再单独观察每个用户的人气。
研究人员根据向一名用户主动发送信息的异性人数来评估这名用户的人气。
分析表明，人气高的用户联系其他人气用户比预期联系随机用户的几率要高得多。
同样地，人气欠佳的用户联系的也是其他人气较低的用户。
研究人员随后对100多万名用户进行了后续调查，发现了相似的结果：人们都会选择和自己同一层次的人进行约会。
研究报告作者发现：“约会市场上的人会评估自身的价值，并选择受欢迎程度和自己大致相当的人作为伴侣。
“根据从实验室和从热门在线约会网站用户收集到的数据，笔者发现配对主要基于自我价值、外表吸引力和受欢迎程度，不过各个因素的影响力大小不同，而且也并不总是在约会过程中的同一阶段产生影响。
“最不寻常的预测就是：没人要的人会选择没人要的人做伴侣。”
more often that not: usually; in a way that is typical of somebody/something （通常；往往；一贯）
of one's league: 与某人同类型
out of one's league: 与某人不属同一类型
heterosexual: a person who is sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex（异性恋者）
unsolicited: not asked for and sometimes not wanted（未经要求的；自发的）