123 Predicting Preferences for Dating Partners From Past Experiences of Psychological Abuse: Identifying the Psychological Ingredients of Situations Vivian Zayas Cornell University Yuichi Shoda University of Washington T he belief that some people recreate past negative relationship dynamics through the choices they make in dating partners is widespread in today’s popu- lar culture as well as among professionals and acade- mics (Kirkwood, 1993). Many professionals in the field of domestic violence explicitly advise women who have been the victims of abuse to “break the cycle” of abuse by changing their preferences in dating partners. What empirical evidence is there to support this belief? Surprisingly, very little. Moreover, little or no research has focused on the partner preferences of men who are abusive in intimate relationships. The lack of empirical research on these issues may be due to the ethical and practical limitations of assessing partner preference. Authors’ Note: This study was supported in part by the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund (Grant MH39349 from the National Institute of Mental Health) and an Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. We are grateful to Walter Mischel, Ozlem Ayduk, Kathryn De Leeuw, Niall Bolger, Kathleen Cook, Scott Counts, Kristen Lindgren, Jason Plaks, Miriam Rosenbaum, and Naomi Zavislak for their comments on earlier drafts and to Michael Berg, Xavier Esters, Matt Pinheiro, and Melissa Wagner. Parts of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in 2001. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Vivian Zayas, Department of Psychology, 211 Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; e-mail: vaza@u.washington.edu. PSPB, Vol. 33 No. 1, January 2007 123-138 DOI: 10.1177/0146167206293493 © 2007 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. Are women who have been the victim of psychological abuse in the past more likely to prefer an abusive dating partner in the future? Are men who have been the per- petrator of abuse more likely to prefer a dating partner with high attachment anxiety, a characteristic associated with victims of abuse? The present research used a highly repeated, within-subject, multilevel approach to identify the characteristics of potential dating partners that con- stitute salient psychological ingredients of situations influencing partner preference. Study 1 found that college- age women who reported more instances of receiving psychological abuse, compared to women who did not, showed a stronger preference for male dating partners who possessed characteristics associated with an abusive personality (e.g., possessiveness). Study 2 found that col- lege-age men who reported more instances of inflicting psychological abuse, compared to men who did not, showed a stronger preference for female dating partners characterized by high attachment anxiety. Keywords: psychological abuse; abusive relationships; part- ner preference; human mate selection; romantic relationship; adult attachment If you’ve frequently become involved with abusive men, it’s either because you tend to find them in more or less the same places, something about them attracts you, or something about you attracts them. —NiCarthy (1986), founder and director of the Abused Women’s Network in Seattle (p. 223)