Comedies often challenge the conventions of storytelling. Films like Airplane and Tropic Thunder, for example, achieve their inevitably happy ending though unexpected means. Viewers are less likely to guess the details of the plot and can therefore be more engaged.

If comedy fans are anything like their films, they tend to be more creative and open, if not a little disorganized. Though they may struggle to find their keys in the morning, they are probably a lot of fun at parties.

Action film fans embrace familiarity. It's no surprise when John McClane beats Hans Gruber in Die Hard, or when Bryan Mills saves his daughter in Taken. Sure, the heroes have their ups and downs, and these films are full of high-impact power scenes, but at their core they are more reliable than most movie genres.

There's an inherent stability and predictability to these flicks that appeals to people who have led their lives in a similarly stable manner. When looking to meet a hard-working, dependable person, it might be a good idea to start on the Rambo message boards.

Romance films tend to be fairly predictable in story structure. Popular romances like The Holiday, You've Got Mail, and Jerry Maguire follow the same basic beats: guy meets girl, guy falls in love with girl, something dramatic throws them off course, and they finally come back together because love conquers all. Rinse and repeat.

Romance films attract viewers who live outwardly stable lives but struggle to maintain emotional stability. They like a straightforward plot to reflect their personal openness but crave that emotional climax that inevitably ends well.

It probably comes as no surprise that fans of fantasy films tend to be more creative and adventurous. Fantasy films like Dragonheart and The Chronicles of Narnia appeal to the imagination. Most fantasy fans centre around worlds that do not actually exist.

However, fantasy filmgoers are also better at retaining information, according to cognitive psychologist Dr. Kevin Brown. Fantasy stimulates the imagination and allows the brain to think beyond concrete possibility - therefore, children and adults who engage with fantasy are usually more optimistic and open to new ideas.

There's one genre that science has yet to definitively pair with a personality type: the thriller. Researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted a study in 2011 that surveyed the correlation between participant personality types and movie genres. They found that thriller fans who completed the survey online tended to be more intellectual and enjoyed the films because of their "ingenuity, competence, and quickness."

But thriller fans who were surveyed in person generally had less education and enjoyed films like Se7en and No Country for Old Men for entirely different reasons.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that horror buffs are both defiant and intellectual. Classic horror tends to follow a trend of recklessness that challenges the conventional need to feel accepted. Films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Anaconda have different premises but still provoke thoughtful ideology through a depiction of mayhem.

Horror fans are often extroverted, conscientious, and purposeful - but since they challenge the norm, they can be rather disagreeable at times.

Science fiction films often depict a dystopian future. Everything from The Matrix to The Cloverfield Paradox to Blade Runner showcases worlds in which a controlling government or nefarious technology has taken over. Inevitably, in each of these films, the protagonists attempt to overthrow the authorities to give the power back to the people.

It's not surprising, then, that fans of these films are often fairly rebellious themselves, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge.