If your new love interest reminds you a bit (or a lot) of your ex, you’re apparently not alone!

According to a fascinating new study, people tend to gravitate towards those with similar traits. So if you’ve always dated stilt-walking clowns who have a thing for sushi and NASCAR racing, there’s a good chance your next relationship will also be with a stilt-walking clown who likes sushi and NASCAR. (Okay, perhaps that’s as wildly specific as it is unlikely, but you get the general gist.)

From the study:

“The results revealed a significant degree of distinctive partner similarity, suggesting that there may indeed be a unique type of person each individual ends up with.”

The study used data from 332 participants and was co-authored by Yoobin Park and our legit IRL pal, Geoff Macdonald of the University of Toronto.

Draw your own conclusions, but we here at Friend of a Friend Matchmaking tend to match people who are similar in character and/or interests and/or values to one another. They say that opposites attract, but we think the opposite of that is true. People tend to date people they are similar to, and so it follows as a matter of course that exes and new loves will be similar in some ways.

How about you? Have you ever dated someone who has reminded you of an ex?