Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,196,533 members, 7,961,684 topics. Date: Sunday, 29 September 2024 at 11:17 AM |
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Family / Why Couples Look Alike After Many Years Of Marriage! (1083 Views)
Why Do Couples Tend To Look Alike? / Yes! It Is True That Husband And Wife Look Alike After Many Years Together / Why Couples Fight (2) (3) (4)
(1) (Reply)
Why Couples Look Alike After Many Years Of Marriage! by godman01(m): 2:22pm On Aug 10, 2014 |
Have you noticed or are you wondering why couples who initially had no particular facial resemblance to each other when they first married now resemble each other after many years of marriage? It seems weird for people to look for those who resemble them when they want to choose partners. However, over time, what seems weird becomes an easy-to-get. It’s strange though, a study has proved, with evidence, that it happens. So, if you stay with your spouse for a couple of decades, you will end up looking more like him or her. But why is it so? The study published in the journal of Motivation and Emotion found that physical likeness between couples increases over time, and through the years, couples’ wrinkles form in the same places because of a lifetime of shared emotions. Sometimes, it is even tempting to think the semblance has been there before they married, but the study has shown that the emotions people experience everyday could change their facial features over time. The increase in facial similarity results from decades of shared emotions, hence, couples who have been married for about 25 years start to look alike gradually. In the study carried out by Robert Zajonc, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, with his graduate students Pamela Adelmann, Sheila Murphy and Paula Niedenthal, 110 participants were presented a random array of photographs of faces, with the backgrounds blacked out so that only the faces could be seen, with an instruction to match the men with the women who resembled most. Two dozens of the photographs were of couples when they first got married; another two dozens were of the same couples 25 years after marriage, most taken around the time of their silver wedding anniversary. All the couples in the photographs were white, lived in Michigan or Wisconsin and were between 50 and 60 years old at the time of the second picture. The results showed that the couples had grown to look more like each other over time and the researchers ensured that the participants indeed made judgements on the basis of facial features rather than any other criteria, and to the researchers’ satisfaction, the participants, were able to tell who was married to whom after 25 years with enough precision that it exceeded chance or guessing. “When couples spend a lot of time together they develop empathy and start to experience the same emotions together, most of the time, such as stress, anxiety, sadness and even happiness. Since these emotions affect their face features, they start to look alike after years of being together,” Zajonc said. It was also revealed that the more marital happiness that the couple said they had, the more likely they were to have increased in their physical similarity. The young couples showed only a chance similarity to each other, the study found, while the judges found a definite resemblance between the couples who had been married a quarter- century. While the resemblances were not dramatic, some seemed to involve subtle shifts in facial wrinkles and other facial contours, clear enough that the judges were able to match husbands and wives when the couples were older than when they were newly married, and the resemblances were greater in some couples than in others, the study found. In support, he points to the finding in his study that those couples who were found to resemble each other most greatly after 25 years were also those who reported the happiest marriages. Zajonc contends that this mimicry is sustained in married couples because experiencing the same emotional state is reinforced by its effects in strengthening feelings of closeness. Factors considered in assessing what could make two people who are not related come to look like one another included similar diet, similar environment and disposition, but the researchers settled on empathy, considering that couples composed of people who feel for one another would be more inclined to mimic one another’s facial expressions, which tend to leave evidence of their presence over time. In other words, if your partner has a good sense of humour and laughs a lot, he or she will probably develop laugh lines around the mouth, and so will you. Other experts, mostly psychologists, agree that shared emotions could gradually sculpture the faces of a couple to become more similar, and that common life experiences over the years can alter facial musculature and wrinkle patterns, leading to an increased resemblance. According to Dr. Ekman, such a process is likely to occur in a married couple. “There is no question that we unconsciously use our facial muscles in the same way as the person we are looking at,” he said. A study by some scientists at the University of Liverpool in 2006 concluded that, “possessing personality traits that are attractive may be causal in making a face attractive.” The study has been greeted with divergent views, while some people see this idea as barbaric, most see it as a very sweet, attractive and true study. http://www.punchng.com/entertainment/saturday-breeze/why-couples-look-alike-after-many-years-of-marriage/ |
Re: Why Couples Look Alike After Many Years Of Marriage! by opportunist: 5:19pm On Aug 10, 2014 |
same reason why sugar daddies look young and supple while their mistresses look older than thei age: blood mixing not some wrinkle s*it |
Re: Why Couples Look Alike After Many Years Of Marriage! by b3llo(m): 12:15am On Aug 11, 2014 |
Recombination of their life |
(1) (Reply)
Photo: Little Girl Writes Note To Black Friend About Parents' Racism / Teething In Children...pls Help With Info... / We Are Worried About My Son And His Controlling Wife
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 19 |