The idea of ‘revisionist history’ states that a person’s preferences will change depending on the individual they are dating or in a relationship with. Campbell tells us that there have already been a number of different studies done on the subject and therefore sought to go digging through the information in order to find out a few Key Findings. What he came up with were interesting:

Key Finding #1

Asking a person in a relationship about their ideal partner will usually yield a description that closely resembles their current partner. While preferences can change depending on who one is dating, Campbell says that over time partners may actually change their own traits in order to suit one another.

Key Finding #2

That same person, when offered a look at other potential partners, would often have preferences that were a little bit different to their current partner.

Key Finding #3

According to this particular finding, there is a big difference between when people actually get married and when they would prefer to get married. According to a group of participants, men preferred women that were younger than themselves whilst women preferred men who were a bit older.

Key Finding #4

Just because you like the sound of someone when you hear them described or read their online dating profile, according to Campbell, does not necessarily mean that you will like them if you meet up with them. This is particularly interesting in online dating because it often means that people don’t always get on with the person when they meet up.
Campbell says that none of the above research can say for definite whether or not we have a type. Like a lot of things, it does appear that human preferences are fluid, changeable and can be influenced by many factors.