Do people who live together really get to look like each other?

Oddly enough, this is one folk tale that apparently has some truth to it. People who live together and like each other often begin to do the same things, to think alike, and to react in the same way, as your uncle and aunt do.

Eventually, they acquire similar habits and similar reactions. They begin to develop the same characteristics.

I know one divorced mother who says her daughter always looks much more like her father after a week’s visit with him. The daughter looks very much like her father, to begin with, but after being with him for a week she begins to hold the muscles of her face (when she laughs, smiles, blinks, frowns, etc.) much more the way her father does.

We are all born with unique features, but there is certain plasticity to everyone’s face. We can all do the same things with our mouths, eyes, and noses. We can smile, frown, sneer, grimace, and go through the hundreds of facial expressions everyone else goes through.

To a large extent, as the poets have it, the face is the mirror of the soul. Like the portrait of Dorian Gray, our faces reflect what goes on inside us, and they are influenced by our expressions.

For this reason, people who share common experiences, as your uncle and aunt do, will often begin to react the same way and develop the same wrinkles, lines, and expressions—in short, they will eventually look alike.