Robert Zajonc - Empathy and Facial Features

Empathy and Facial Features

Robert Zajonc and a group of his colleagues did a study to try and evaluate how couples who have been together for 25 years (i.e. married couples) begin to develop similar facial features. The study involved 110 participants (55 couples) whose photographs were taken in their first year of marriage. The participants were also asked what they thought the chances were of looking like their spouses 25 years later. The majority of the description of changes that the participants anticipated was mostly facial. Twenty-five years later when the new photos were taken, the results could not be explained by simply comparing the images, but by the fact that each couple believed that their facial features actually changed and looked similar to their spouses. Zajonc and his colleagues developed numerous explanations for how such a phenomenon could happen. Three explanations that were ruled out as possibilities were similar diets, environmental influence, and conscious selection. High fat diet making each spouse face chubby was ruled out because not all the participants were chubby. Since all the couples came from the same part the US Midwest they were able to rule out environment as a factor. The thought of people picking a spouse that will most likely grow old to look similar to each other wasn’t ruled out completely, but predisposition wasn’t the best reason. The explanation the scientists agreed on was empathy. Most married couples who have been together for 25 years or longer can identity with the other persons feelings. A lot of human emotions and feelings are expressed through the face, and when two people make similar facial expressions for 25 years it could result in similar wrinkle patterns. There isn't enough evidence to prove this theory to be completely true, but it is definitely a possibility.