U.S. researchers tested the theory that husbands and wives eventually become similar to each other in appearance. Experts received evidence that this phenomenon does exist, sometimes the resemblance of the spouses is so great that they are easily mistaken for brothers and sisters.
The experts collected pictures of spouses living together for 25 years or more. Then these images were compared with those made before marriage and at an early stage of marriage. A simple analysis of the photos confirmed that in most cases, husbands and wives really became almost a copy of each other over the years of marriage.
In all cases, the resemblance of the spouses had a clear trend: the happier life the couple had together, the more evident and impressive was the similarity between them.
According to psychologists at Yale University, a husband and a wife very often copy each other without noticing. Especially with bad habits. If, for example, the wife quit smoking or drinking, then the probability that the husband also refuses alcohol and cigarettes increases by 5 times. The same mechanism applies to physical activity and seeing doctors.
Experts believe that men and women initially tend to select companions for life among those with whom they have some common external features. Therefore, the higher the similarity in spouses, the more likely it is that their marriage will go well. And vice versa – a happy marriage makes husband and wife more and more similar to each other over the years. Close people begin to copy each other’s facial expressions and habits, and the longer a family exists, the less consciously it happens.
