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Why Do So Many Couples Look Alike? Like they could be brother and sister?

Uhtred

Uhtred

Member
Are People naturally attracted to themselves so they look like someone who looks like them? What is it? I could post thousands of examples.


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Grildon Tundy

Grildon Tundy

Member
Plenty of examples where it isn't the case, too, of course. But in addition to what's already been said, part of it could be dating within your 1-10 score, so you're already starting with two 7s, for example, in terms of attractivess adding a base level of similarity.
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
There is a couple in my neighborhood like this. Both kinda tweedy nerdy gangly types. They MUST be mistaken as siblings ALL THE TIME. Then throw in their new baby....it's gotta be awkward at times :p
 
Uhtred

Uhtred

Member
YCoCg said:
But can you post your own? Or are you single?
Click to expand...
My GF and I are absolute opposites I’m tall dark hair, salt and pepper beard! She’s shorter, blonde, beach tanned beauty who is miles out of my league, but polar opposites. Going on 4 years together. I’d never want to date anyone who looked like me or could be mistaken for my sister.
 
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E

Ecotic

Member
I read a scientific study or something about this years ago. It was determined that DNA desires to propagate itself as similarly to itself as it can, and it manifests in a desire to seek out partners with similar features. There was a sound basis for this. If a person or an animal exists, then it must mean that its genetics are a good match for its environment since its parents were obviously successful in procreating, and so DNA desires to find a partner that's as accurate to itself as possible to continue this evolutionary success.
 
Uhtred

Uhtred

Member
Trilobit said:
Do you have face-blindness, OP? I don't see any striking similarities between the people in your pics.
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Really? If they don’t look alike to you, which they certainly do to me, you have to admit they could all be mistaken for brother and sister.
 
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Trilobit

Trilobit

Member
Uhtred said:
Really? If they don’t look alike to you, which they certainly do to me, you have to admit they could all be mistaken for brother and sister.
Click to expand...

They look as similar as Polish, Finnish or Danish couples look. I don't know if this is some weird American commentary.
 
E-Cat

E-Cat

Member
Ecotic said:
I read a scientific study or something about this years ago. It was determined that DNA desires to propagate itself as similarly to itself as it can, and it manifests in a desire to seek out partners with similar features. There was a sound basis for this. If a person or an animal exists, then it must mean that its genetics are a good match for its environment since its parents were obviously successful in procreating, and so DNA desires to find a partner that's as accurate to itself as possible to continue this evolutionary success.
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By that logic, everyone’s a good match since everyone’s parents were successful in procreating.
 
O

Outlier

Member
Most people on Earth are inbred on some level. This shouldn't shock people.
Before people travelled long distances, how else were they going to reproduce, if not with their own relatives.
 
SoloCamo

SoloCamo

Member
Well I'm mostly Irish / Northern Europe and my GF is 95% Italian so this doesn't always count but I guess we both have brown hair.....
 
E

Ecotic

Member
E-Cat said:
By that logic, everyone’s a good match since everyone’s parents were successful in procreating.
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Think of two genetically distant subspecies sharing the same environment. They both exist and so they must both be successful, right? But they're only successful because they're each specializing in their own niche in the environment and have a body plan built to exploit that niche. The study was saying that DNA hardwires us to understand that even though a genetically distant partner is available and successful in their own way, mating with them is a gamble that could produce unfit offspring.

The example the study used was the famous Galapagos Finches that Charles Darwin documented. They were all the same species of finch, but each subspecies had a dramatically different beak meant to harvest a different type of food. Some had short and hardy beaks meant to break open seeds, others had long and pointed beaks meant to extract insects from trees. They could all interbreed and produce fertile offspring, but they avoided each other because a hybrid offspring could have an in-between beak that couldn't crush seeds or reach insects. Their DNA hardwired these finches somehow to seek mates with as similar a beak as possible.

Another good example would be two species of big cats occupying the same area. Imagine one hunts by the river and is built for swimming like a Jaguar, and the other hunts on open land and is built for chasing down prey like a Lion. Even though they could technically interbreed, their DNA would hardwire them to stay away from each other because a hybrid offspring could have a hybrid body plan that's no longer good for swimming or running. It would starve.

The study conjectured that humans had sound reasons to want to be with people who look as similar to themselves as possible. Imagine it's the distant past and you live in the far north, then survival means your skin color being very pale to get the right amount of Vitamin D, and your body being short and barrel-chested to preserve as much heat as possible. You therefore have a very specific body plan to survive in your environment. Now imagine some explorers arrive who originate from a scorching equatorial region. Their body plan for their environment means they have a dark complexion and are very tall and skinny (for optimum heat dissipation). So, having children with these explorers would be a bad idea and result in children not adapted to their environment. In this scenario both populations were successful in their own way in their own environment, but their hybrid offspring wouldn't be.

Or go even further in the past, when there were many different species of hominin such as Neanderthals or Homo Floresiensis (those very small hominins from Indonesia). It's been shown today that humans suffer genetic disease from ancient humans interbreeding with Neanderthals, and we only have 2% of our DNA from Neanderthals. Interbreeding between those majorly distinct groups of ancient hominins could have produced very sick, if marginally fertile offspring.

Well, hopefully you get my point. The study was saying that DNA seems to instruct us to know that while a genetically distant potential partner could be available and is successful, it's often a gamble with poor odds of success. It's best to stick with what's working, and that means finding someone similar to who we are.
 
P

pachura

Member
I thought that ideally, females would breed with genetically distant, successful, aggressive partners (to maximize their offspring's chance of survival), while forming a relationship/family unit with genetically similar, protective ones (to protect and nourish them during pregnancy & infancy)...
 
Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
OverHeat said:
9x5e3bK.jpg
Me and my wife we don’t look a like IMO
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The upper and lower eyelids are identical. The noses are similar although it's always hard to tell, just from the front. If she were to close her lips, we would be able to judge this more accurately because the corners of her mouth are distorted. Your eyebrows are covered here but from the "Post a picture of yourself, if you dare..." thread, i know that they look also very similar to the ones of your wife. A bit thicker for sure but the general shape is the same.

There are more similarities between both of your faces than you realise. You can also find dissimilarities and we don't see the ears for example so in general it's not about expecting monozygotic twins but to actually read a face properly and interpret its facial features.
 
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