The convergence hypothesis suggests that spouses and romantic partners tend to become more alike over time due to their shared environment, repeated interactions, and synchronized routines. For example, partners who often laugh and joke with each other, may experience less stress, which, over the years, may improve their health and social interactions. Yet, as detailed below, this hypothesis was not confirmed by empirical studies.
The convergence hypothesis became popular among social scientists and was widely used to explain the high levels of observed similarity between spouses and romantic partners in physical, physiological, demographic and psychological characteristics, such as social class, religion, be of similar height, intelligence, education. Yet, empirical research shows that couples do not become more similar over time, but are similar from the outset. The similarity between spouses and romantic partners is explained by homogamy, (i.e., being socially and geographically surrounded by similar others) and homophily (i.e., preference for similar others).