Choosing a Partner Just Like You: Are We Attracted to Ourselves?

I once had a former flame who seemed to have a distinct type of taste in women—women who looked like him!

He was lanky, dark, and had a prominent, Aristocratic nose and all his girlfriends were just the same!

I always wondered: Is he in love with himself? Is he narcissistic? Do we all choose partners who look like ourselves?

As it would turn out, he just might be on the right track! Studies suggest that partners who are genetically similar to each other tend to have happier marriages.

Couples That Look Alike
Francoisbrunelle.humaneco.ca

But if you think we seek people out who look like us, think again! A study has found that couples begin to look like each other as they continue dating.

A small-scale study asked 11 subjects to look at 160 faces (80 female-80 male) of real-life married couples and were asked to rate who looked the most similar and seemed to have similar personalities.

Subjects rated the real-life couples as looking the most alike and this phenomenon increased with the length of time the couple had been dating.

This sort of “chameleon affect” may seem obvious to some people—haven’t you ever found yourself mimicking a friend after hanging out with them for a long time? It’s a well known fact that people rub off on each other and personality traits lend with exposure to one another.

So, the next time you decide to date someone, ask yourself this: Do I want to become this person?

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