In life, it is not difficult to find that some couples are very similar in appearance.
There is also a folk saying that "it is not a family that does not enter a door".
Becoming a husband and wife, is there a reason for "husband and wife", or is it just the interpretation of posterity?
Is the "husband and wife" a coincidence or does it have a scientific basis?
Some scientific research may help us demystify it more rationally.
The so-called "husband and wife" refers to the fact that both husband and wife have similar characteristics, especially similar facial features.
Of course, there is also an expansion of the definition of "husband and wife", which refers to a phenomenon in which two couples are similar in appearance, body to temperament, behavior, personality characteristics and even the entire mental outlook and even health status.
"Husband and wife" can be roughly divided into two categories:
In the first category, couples with similar appearances usually look very similar before they met or before they got married. This kind of similar-looking couple, that is, people often say "born a pair, set a pair";
(Deng Chao, Sun Li and his wife, source: network)
The other type refers to the fact that the husband and wife have gone through the years, their living habits have converged, influenced each other and become more and more similar from the inside out, and there will be similar personality characteristics and ways of thinking, so that they have similar expressions, and their appearance looks more and more "like a family".
Although the exact concept of "husband and wife" has not yet been a scientifically unified standard, both empirical and scientific research test results have affirmed the rationality of the existence of "husband and wife" to a certain extent.
Studies have long found that couples who are engaged or married generally have a higher degree of similarity in facial features than men and women who are randomly paired.
There are currently two explanations for the causes of "conjugal phases"[1]:
The "choice view" holds that the "husband and wife phase" is the result of the choice of the spouse.
Because the "similarity" between "potential spouses" will "attract" to each other, and "attraction" leads to "choice", so "husband and wife" exists before "actual couple".
(Lu Yi, Bao Lei, couple, source: network)
In a study in the 1990s[2] it was found that a spouse's weight showed important correlations with physical strength that could not be explained by living together or age, and concluded that the existence of certain physical similarities in human marriage was the result of pre-marriage choices.
This may be in line with the logic of evolutionary theory, comparing matching male and female combinations, it is easier to choose to become a spouse, such a two-way selection process is more conducive to the inheritance of genes and the continuation of offspring.
(Wu Yanzu and Lisa S, source: network)
A 2005 study by Luo [3] found that newlyweds usually have certain similarities in a variety of physical characteristics, they lack long-term experience of living together, and they cannot explain this similarity with common life experience, so it is more reasonable to infer that it is precisely because two people have this similarity that there is a greater probability of mutual attraction and mutual choice.
AC Little[4] found a similar finding in a 2006 study: although people are more likely to have a good feeling for the opposite sex with high physical attractiveness, they are more likely to choose the other half who is similar in appearance as a partner in the actual choice of marriage partner.
That is, in the process of choosing a mate, the individual will be biased to choose the other half that is similar to their appearance, personality, life habits, values, etc. Such a combination may lead to a more stable marriage, more favorable to racial reproduction and genetic inheritance.
(Source: soogif)
"Convergence" (spousal convergence) believes that due to the long-term coexistence of husband and wife, common experience and other factors, the facial expressions and emotional response patterns of both husband and wife will affect each other at the conscious level and the unconscious level, imitate each other, and in the long-term conscious and unconscious behavior process, the two will continue to be consistent, resulting in "husband and wife".
(Mr. and Mrs. Tsubata, Source: Japanese High Score Documentary "Fruits of Life")
In the 1970s, a study found that testers could easily distinguish between couples who had been married for less than 10 years, or partners who had been married for more than 20 years, because the latter's faces and behaviors were more similar and better matched.
Professor Zajonc RB[5] at the University of Michigan also conducted an interesting experiment in 1987 that provided evidence for the "convergence" view.
He asked students to rate similarities (standardized) photos of numerous couples, and the rest of them paired photos of scrambled couples, including 6 newlyweds and 6 couples who had been married for more than 25 years.
The results showed that the same couple was more photo-like in the 25th year of marriage than in the first year, and as predicted, the couples were not entirely together because of similar looks, but became more and more similar over time, with similar life circumstances and emotional experiences.
(Source: soogif)
A 2006 Study by Little[4] further confirmed that the phenomenon of "conjugal phases" is positively correlated with the duration of marriage between couples.
For most people, the origin interpretation of "husband and wife" is still more inclined to the "choice view". The conclusions of a 2010 Humad[6] survey of 1296 married couples also supported the "choice view".
Marriage is about fate, and "husband and wife" is indeed one of the manifestations of fate, and they will be married because they have some kind of commonality (that is, "love at first sight" and "call").
It is said that couples with "husband and wife" will have feelings like glue, so many men and women in love often compare the appearance of both parties to see if they look like each other, so as to close each other's hearts, and even more, run to the plastic surgery home to make a "husband and wife".
So the question is, is it that the marital satisfaction of partners with "husband and wife" will be higher than ordinary people?
A special researcher in China selected two questionnaires to test the quality of marriage [7] to investigate whether there are "husband and wife" partners, and found that there is no significant difference between the marital satisfaction of couples with high-similarity faces and the couples with low-similarity faces, which overturns the previous hypothesis of the study.
Of course, academic research also has the opposite conclusion. A survey conducted by the Journal of Social and Personal Relations[8] found that couples with husband and wife were found to be more harmonious, so there is still no uniform answer to this question.
Mate selection refers to the individual's choice of his or her life partner according to certain criteria, and the emotional response to similarity established from the physiological, psychological and cognitive levels of both parties, which is a complex psychological, social and cultural phenomenon, and an important link in the marriage of the two sexes [9].
Choosing "husband and wife" as your own mate selection criterion is understandable, and it does not have to be forced. Choosing a spouse is a major choice in life, and when people choose a spouse, they tend to choose people who have similar genetic characteristics to themselves, which is also an instinctive behavior of people to protect their genetic inheritance.
"Husband and wife" is cute, but appearance is only appearance. After all, the appearance of faces is commented by others, and it is only when two hearts are pleasing to the heart that they experience it.
The most beautiful "husband and wife" is manifested in their mutual attraction, influence and promotion caused by love. Husband and wife who love each other will be willing to change themselves for love, become the whole other for love, and the longer they grow for love, the more they have a "husband and wife".
Special Author: Hu Qiang | doctoral student and deputy chief physician of Shanghai Mental Health Center
Review expert: Wang Chunxue| chief physician of the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Psychology of Beijing Tiantan Hospital
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