Factors Affecting Attraction: Filter Theory 1

Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 9.1.6

Filter Theory

Filter theory tries to explain how people go about choosing romantic partners.

For romantic relationships to form, both partners tend to share certain factors, such as geographical location, ethnic group or attitude.
But we won’t necessarily find all the people within this pool or ‘field of availables’ desirable.
Filter theory says that people help themselves in their selection of romantic partners by applying three ‘levels of filters’ to the pool of available candidates.

Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) first proposed filter theory.
They compared the attitudes and personalities of student couples in short-term (under 18 months) and long-term relationships.
They suggest that in our choice of romantic partner, we progress through three levels of ‘filtering’ to narrow down the pool of available partners to a field of ‘desirables.’

Gating features act as a filter, allowing us to decide who is and who is not a potential partner.
Gating features are easily detected face-to-face e.g. physical attractiveness, age, social class, race, sexuality, and gender, or other features such as stuttering, shyness, social anxiety etc.
These gating features often prevent people who are less attractive or socially competent from developing relationships. Online, a person can be whoever they want to be and gating features are not immediately evident.

The first level of the filter is called social demography.

Social demography refers to factors that influence the chances of potential partners meeting each other.
E.g. location/proximity, social class, education level, ethnic group and religion.
It is assumed that potential romantic partners are likely to live close, have attended the same school or university or share similar social circles.

According to filter theory, even though the range of potential partners is vast, people generally filter out those who are seen as too different.
This means you are more likely to form a romantic relationship with someone who is socially or culturally similar to you.

Social demography doesn’t discount the possibility of relationships forming beyond these parameters.
But living further away, for example, would certainly limit the chances of a relationship forming in the first place.
This is partly because it's less effort to meet people who live in the same area or who go to the same school or university.

How many levels of ‘filtering’ do Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) identify in their study?
What is NOT an assumed factor of romantic relationships forming according to social demography?