It’s fairly common to get this question when reviewing feedback from a personality inventory with a group. Many times people’s minds go to the effects of attraction in selection — but not always at work.
It goes something like this:
When it comes to personality types, which of the following is more true, “Birds of a feather flock together?”, or “Opposites attract?” (participant)
My first response is usually to twist this just a little bit and serve it back to the audience, “I don’t know. Would you marry yourself?”
This always gets a lot of laughs but also provokes the realization that most would not wish to spend the rest of their lives with ‘themselves.’
Why does this happen so consistently?
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