Do Couples Start To Look Like Each Other Over Time?

Robert Zajonc was a leading figure in social psychology. Zajonc’s parents were killed in the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 and he was sent to a German labour camp from which he later escaped. He walked 550 miles to a fishing port and found safe passage on a fishing boat bound for Ireland. He moved to America where he earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. 

One of his many contributions to the field of social psychology was a study into whether couples facial features actually converge the longer they are together. Is this really possible? First let’s put this in perspective. Zajonc wasn’t studying couples who already resembled each other. i.e. they hadn’t consciously selected each other because they had similar features to begin with.

Zajonc had 110 participants study photographs of couples taken at the start of their relationship. He then showed them photographs of the same couples after 25 years.  The feedback Zajonc and his colleagues received from the participants did indeed suggest that couples do start to look like each other after a long period of co-habitation. But why should this be the case? Several reasons have been put forward:

Predisposition: This is the theory that people unconsciously chose a partner who will grow to look like them. So for example very happy people will attract a partner with similar personality traits. In time they will develop a similar ‘look’ as a result of this. Personally I can’t see there is any evidence to support this.

Environment: Couples live in the same area and so are effected by sunshine and other climatic conditions. Again, I can’t see any evidence to support this.

Empathy:  Two people who live together for a long period of time, by virtue of empathic mimicry, would grow physically similar in their facial features. This theory holds water because the facial muscles act as ligatures on veins and arteries, which has an impact on blood flow to the face. The implication of this ‘vascular theory’ is that the habitual use of facial musculature in similar ways may cause a permanent change in the facial features of couples. Therefore the use of empathic mimicry in intense social contact situations would appear to be the answer.  

The researchers discovered another surprising fact from the study. Resemblance it seems is also associated with greater reported marital happiness.