Facial Similarities Occur Between couples
This is the fact after a long research had revealed.Do
you believe that people who live with each other for 25 years actually develop
similar facial features? I don't just mean that people tend to choose partners
who resemble them, rather that over time together couple's features actually
converge. It's weird, but there's evidence for it from a singular study carried
out by the noted psychologist Robert
Zajonc and
colleagues.
Here's what they did.
110 participants were shown
photographs of men and women in their first year of marriage and of the same
couples after 25 years of marriage. Then they were asked to judge their
resemblance along with the chance that any man and woman were married to each
other. The researchers went to a lot of effort to remove extraneous info and crop photos so that only
faces could be seen.
The types of choices the
participants made indicated the perception was that couples became more
facially similar after 25 years together. The results could not be explained by
people simply all looking the same as they got older. Also, data from a control
group indicated participants were indeed making judgements on the basis of
facial features rather than any other criteria.
So this means if you stick
around with your partner, you'll end up looking more like them after a couple
of decades. Which naturally raises the question: why?
Here are the possible
explanations the authors suggest:
1. Diet. If you share your
diet with another person it's possible this is the cause. For example if both
partners eat a high fat diet, both their faces will tend to look chubby. The
authors, however, ruled this out using an additional small study.
2. Environment. It could be that it's
because couples live together in the same area. This means that environmental
factors such as sunshine and so on affect the skin in similar ways. The authors
rule this one out as well because all their married couples came from the same
part of the US Midwest and were matched on a number of other socioeconomic
variables.
3. Predisposition. This is the idea that
people are more likely to choose partners who will grow to look like them. E.g.
depressed people are attracted to each other, so end up looking depressed. The
authors give this one a maybe, although it is not their favourite option.
4. Empathy. This is the theory
the authors like - and so do I. People grow to look similar because they are
empathising with each other and so copying each other's facial expressions.
Over time because of all the empathising they are doing, their faces come to
look more similar. For example, if one partner often smiles in a particular
way, the other is likely to copy it - so creating similar patterns of wrinkles
and furrows on the face.
Because they liked theory
number 4 the authors had another thought. Why not see if those who grow to look
most like each other are the happiest couples? Presumably, then, those who get
on better, empathise with each other to a greater degree and therefore go on to
look more similar. Unfortunately, this test failed to reach statistical significance,
so this study doesn't give us enough evidence to say whether or not it is true.
A glimpse of the future?
A straw poll of people I've talked to about
this research reveals a polarised reaction. Some think that growing to look
more like your partner is an horrific idea. Others, though, think there's
something very sweet and romantic about it. I think I'm in the latter camp.
There is one worrying
possibility this study suggests. It is said if you want to find out what your
partner will look like when they're older, you should look at your partner's
parents. Perhaps a glance at your partner's parents might also reveal what you
will look like in a couple of decades. Truly scary stuff!
Image source: http://morguefile.com/archive/display/179695
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