Fatal attraction

In interpersonal relationships a fatal attraction is when the very qualities that draw us to someone eventually contribute to relational breakup.

Fatal attraction framework

Diane Felmlee is the major contributor in fatal attraction framework. Felmlee is currently a professor of sociology at Penn State University. When she wrote her major work on fatal attraction she was a professor at the University of California, Davis. David Orzechowicz and Carmen Fortes are also contributors to fatal attraction framework. Orzechowicz is currently a professor in the department of sociology at the University of California, Davis, where Fortes is As of December 2013 a Ph.D candidate.

Fatal attraction research began as exploratory research attempting to connect characteristics of initial attractiveness with those later perceived as problematic. Prior to this research, there had been extensive research on attraction and relationship dissolution. However, this research was innovative in trying to correlate the same characteristics to both initial attraction and relationship breakup. In her landmark research on fatal attraction Felmlee analyzed the data from a random sample on initial attraction and the subsequent data from a self-report study of the sample respondents' about the characteristics they dislike about their partner. Felmelee then summarized her results in terms of pertinence to interpersonal theories and dialectical perspectives.