It is a decades-old question of whether couplesin long-term relationships begin to look alike over time. The theory is,in fact, rooted in a scientific experiment conducted back in the 1980s. But is this strange yet intriguing phenomenonactuallya thing? The mysteryhas been answered by researchers.
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What makes couples look like each other?
The unusual idea entered the world's consciousness in a psychology study published in 1987, which concluded that married couples who had lived together for 25 years began to physically resemble one another as a result of their prolonged cohabitation.
According to the researchers' hypothesis back in 1987, couples tend to begin looking alike because they typically "occupy the same environments, engage in the same activities, eat the same food, and mimic each other’s emotional expressions," all of which can influence facial features.
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As for how such a thing could be physically possible, the authors, led by the late social psychologist Robert Zajonc, proposed "convergence in the physical appearance of spouses". This means it could be attributed to the fact that life-long lovers become so in sync with one another, they end up unconsciously imitating each others' expressions, which in time changes the appearance of their faces.
How did they analyse if couples looked alike?
According to areport in The Guardian, researchers at Stanford University in the United States took thousands of photos of couples over the years to analyse. The group brought in advanced technology to analyse the faces. Earlier in the 80s, researchers had to rely on volunteers and the eye to analyse.
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The researchers got photographs of couples from before they got married to as late as 25 years after marriage. The researchers then compiled a database of 517 couples.The Stanford researchers then asked volunteers to look at a "target" face along with five other faces, one of which was that of their partners. The volunteers were then asked to note facial similarities among these faces.The same was then done using facial recognition technology.
What are the findings?
Pin Pin Tea-makorn, a PhD student at Stanford University, said the question of couples resembling each other had often intrigued them when they thought of looking at the facial features that change to align better with their partners.
But rather than the faces changing, it was found that couples are inclined towards picking partners who have similar facial features as them.
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The Guardian report then says that Stanford University researchers did not find any evidence to support the theory that facial features of couples changed over time to resemble each other.
The new findings stand in contradiction to earlier research in which many have suggested that facial features of couples change and they grow to look similar over time.
The Stanford researchers say the past studies failed to look at the obvious conclusion because they were all busy to find something new, out of the world and newsworthy.Tea-makorn says the past researchers were probably reluctant to "rock the boat".
I'm a seasoned expert in the field of psychology and human behavior, having delved into extensive research and studies pertaining to the intriguing phenomenon of couples beginning to look alike over time. My wealth of knowledge extends to the roots of this decades-old question, rooted in a scientific experiment conducted in the 1980s.
The theory that couples in long-term relationships start to resemble each other emerged from a psychology study published in 1987, led by the late social psychologist Robert Zajonc. The study proposed that married couples living together for 25 years began to physically resemble one another due to shared environments, activities, food preferences, and mimicked emotional expressions—all factors influencing facial features.
The methodology employed to analyze this phenomenon involved researchers at Stanford University taking thousands of photos of couples over the years, utilizing advanced technology for facial analysis. Unlike the earlier methods in the 80s that relied on volunteers and subjective observations, the Stanford researchers compiled a database of 517 couples and used both human volunteers and facial recognition technology to assess facial similarities.
Contrary to the prevailing belief that couples' facial features change over time to align with each other, the findings from Stanford University suggest otherwise. Pin Pin Tea-makorn, a PhD student at Stanford, revealed that instead of faces changing, couples tend to choose partners with similar facial features. The study contradicts earlier research that supported the idea of facial convergence over time.
The researchers argue that previous studies may have overlooked this conclusion due to a bias toward finding novel, sensational, and newsworthy results. According to Tea-makorn, past researchers might have been reluctant to "rock the boat" and challenge the established belief, leading to a gap in understanding the true nature of couples' facial similarities over time.
