Passage 2

The faces of elderly, happily maried people sometimes resemble each other. Dr. Aiken studied anumber of couples who had been married for at least twenty-five years. Each couple provided fourphotographs—one photo of each partner at the time of their marriage and another photo of each partnertwenty-five or more years later. The backgrounds were cut from the photos to remove any clues. Thephotos were then displayed in groups: a random grouping of the persons at the time of their marriage and another random grouping of the same persons who were photographed later. The subjects were asked topick out the most happily married couples. They totally failed in the first group. But among the photostaken twenty-five or more years after the marriage, the subjects succeeded in picking out the mosthappily married couples.

Dr. Aiken believes there are several reasons why couples grow alike. One of the reasons hassomething to do with imitation. One person tends to copy or do the same as someone else withoutknowing it. He thinks humans imitate the expressions on the faces of their loved ones."Anotherpossible reason," he says,"is the similar experiences of the couples."There is a tendency for peoplewho have the same life experiences to change their faces in similar ways. For example, if a couple havesuffered from a lot of sad experiences, their faces are likely to change in a similar way.