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Abstract In Reik's (1957) complementarity theory of romantic love, one falls in love when one is dissatisfied with oneself and meets someone of the opposite sex who has those characteristics that he or she desires but has been unable to achieve. To test this theory, low- (n = 20) and high- (n = 20) self-esteem subjects were given personality descriptions, supposedly belonging to peers of the opposite sex, and asked to state how attracted they were to each. One description was composed of the subject's actual characteristics only; another, his ideal characteristics only; a third, characteristics that were both actual and ideal; and a fourth, characteristics that did not belong to the individual's actual or ideal self. Subjects were more attracted to peers embodying their own ideal characteristics than to those who did not. Thus, Reik's theory was supported.
Mathes et al. (Sat,) studied this question.