ABSTRACT
Many participants in my research have cited differences in lifestyles, in religious beliefs, and in goals as well as disparities in financial and educational levels as impassable barriers to what seemed at first to be potentially successful coupleships. In real life, they lament, it's just not like in novels or movies -where opposites attract and love conquers all. Lazarus (1985) advised: Although short-term flings with people who are very different can be quite exciting, and some difference can be enriching and stimulating, long-term relationships usually flourish when similarity rather than dissimilarity prevails.
