WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Look-Alike Old Couples 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.520 Hello, and welcome to the short Stuff. There's Jerry, Chuck me. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:12.719 Josh is short stuff. This is short go. And we're 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.440 all starting to look alike here on our eleventh anniversary. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.280 We really are. We've all kind of morphed into this 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.320 weird like, um, well this is a morphous blob. How 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.400 about that we don't even look like we've actually physically 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:33.879 merged together. Yeah. So do old people look alike old couples? 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.240 That is right? Right, that's a big one, because yes, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.600 there's probably some old people you could find randomly in 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.559 the crowd and be like this kind of looks like 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:45.279 this person, and we probably old people anymore either, right, 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.640 we should probably say seniors. Yes, elderly elderly, senior adults, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:52.279 I think is what it is actually a good call. 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.720 I mean I'm right around the corner from being the right, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.120 so I'm like, I don't like saying old people, right exactly. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:04.480 Um so, okay, so senior adults anyway, an older couple, 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.479 that's what we're gonna say. A couple that's lived together, 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.680 married or in some sort of partnership, romantic or otherwise 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.160 for a very long time. They do tend to start 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.520 to look alike. The older they get, and there's actual 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:20.640 science to to back this up. This isn't just some 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.080 you know, random hilarity there. They've actually done studies about this. 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:26.920 Because it's kind of a weird thing if you think 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.480 about it. We take it for granted, but the idea 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.839 that two people who are not related should should come 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.319 to like look like one another over the years, it's 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.360 it's a little odd, even though you know it seems like, yeah, 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.360 of course that's what happens. But why, Chuck, Why is 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.480 the big question? Well, first of all, I have a 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.120 question for you. Have you noticed this? Do you think 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.760 this is the thing, because I've never really noticed this. Um, yeah, 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.560 I have. Actually, there's I've seen some couples that I'm like, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.800 I think you guys are brother and sister, and it's 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.440 a little unsettling because they usually seem happy and they're 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.880 holding hands. But it's uh no, I have definitely seen 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.760 it before. I don't know. I'm just trying to think 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.880 in my life, like my grandparents didn't look alike, and 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.760 I don't know, I'm trying to piece it together. I 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.760 do like the science here, because not much of the 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.440 science really points to like necessarily looking like one another, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:25.880 but let's talk about it, okay. So, and I think 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.160 also just to kind of clarify your point, it's not 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.920 like it's an inevitability, sure, but it does happen, and 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:38.520 the fact that it does happen still raises the question why. Yeah. So, Uh, 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.240 there was a study called Personality and Individual Differences or 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.040 I'm sorry that was the magazine that was published in 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.919 the rag that you can find on news stands all 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:50.919 over the country, right. Uh, and they serve a twenty 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.240 They got twenty two people, Um, I guess, eleven men 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.760 and eleven women who participated in the study. And they said, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.360 look at these hundreds. He married couples, but you know 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:04.760 they're separate. You don't know like who's in a couple, 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.280 and then tell us what you think, go right right? 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.799 It was it was um who who looks alike? Um, 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.120 who's married to who? And what they found was that 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:20.160 people tended to pick married couples out even though they 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.680 weren't showing pictures. And since they've shown the men's pictures 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:24.560 and they're showing the women's pictures, that was basically like 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.919 put them together, and people tended to do that. Also. Um. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:32.359 They also judged them based on attractiveness, and they the 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.160 people also tended to be rated along the same line, 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.880 so like a seven typically was paired up with a seven. 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.560 So the fact that the fact that the fact that 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:47.560 you could, um, you could you a random stranger could 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.880 pick these couples out and and more often than chance 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.240 get it right. Put pairing who was married who just 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.680 based on looks definitely suggests that there's something there, and 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.840 there's something there that they believe that is really behind 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.440 it is mostly genetics, yeah, I mean there is non 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.880 genetically speaking. I do think there is something to the 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.400 fact because they make a point in this article that, like, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.840 you know, if your personalities are similar, which is probably 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.440 you know, you generally seek out someone who you think 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.760 with jibe personality wise, you may end up being a 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.160 couple who just laughs a lot and enjoys life, and 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.800 that would affect the same facial muscles and things like that. 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:30.560 Or if you look at any picture like pre nineteen sixty, 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.320 all you see is two dour looking senior adults standing 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.599 next to each other, so they may look a little 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.200 bit more like although I think we've done something on 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.400 people smiling and pictures, or maybe we just talked about 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.520 it briefly, but that'd be a good shorty, I think, yeah, surely. 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.039 I don't recall that at all, Like it was the 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.279 first goon who put on a big smile in a 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.120 photo and everyone's like, what did you just do? What 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.640 is that You're supposed to frown in pictures? Young man? 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.880 Can I subscribe to your newsletter? But uh, as far 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.680 as um genetics go, and we've talked about a lot 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.640 of this here and there on the show, about people 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:11.039 seeking out for life partners and sexual and reproductive partners, 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:15.640 people that are more uh similarly similar genetically as themselves, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.040 right right, which makes sense. The idea, the whole premise 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.880 is that we would seek those people out because our 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.720 genes have kind of co evolved together, so they fit together, 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:31.440 they work together more readily, um, which is uh you know. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.760 So some people would say, okay, well you should stick 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.520 with your own kind and and and not marry outside 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.120 of your own group or whatever. But the opposite of 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.400 that is when you get too much homogeneity, the gene 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.599 pool starts to really really suffer. So it's good to mix, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.040 but at the same time, we seem to be geared, 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.160 at least according to this school of thought toward seeking 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:55.640 out mates that we we might be able to genetically 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.880 be more genetically compatible with the question is this though 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.960 beyond say, something glaringly obvious is somebody saying, like, um, 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.920 you know, just sticking to their ethnic group or racial 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.359 group or something like that to to marry and have 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.159 kids with. How else would you, like, if you're not 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.559 doing that, how would you possibly pick out somebody based 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.839 on genetics? Like? How would you know how someone's um 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.720 compatible with you genetically? This is like, so there's we've 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.000 got the question of how to old I'm sorry, senior 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.680 adult couples start to look alike. But then if it's genetics, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.719 how do we find that out? You know, like, what 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.200 are we doing? All Right? That seems like a good 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.520 spot for a break, and we'll come back and talk 0:06:36.560 --> 0:07:06.880 about sexual imprinting right after this. So I promised talk 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.840 of sexual imprinting about sixty seconds ago. And there's this 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.080 thing and and it's not just like something people say, 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.840 it's there's a real thing where they've done studies and 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:21.760 found that women, Um, I was gonna say generally, but 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.480 studies indicate that women, if they if they have fathers, 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:26.920 that they were close to and that they love that, 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:31.280 they will seek out adult relationships with men who are 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.520 like their fathers, and then includes looking like their fathers, 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.520 looking like their father's, behaving like their fathers, Like if 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.960 their father was stern but kind, you know, they will 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.720 probably look for that and a mate if their father 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:46.480 was like, hey you, you do you. But the the 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.880 key seems to be that the father and the daughter's 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.720 bond and relationship is is very strong, and the stronger 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.720 it is, the more of this sexual imprinting there is. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.280 And so rather than like the girl, you know, secretly 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.280 having the hots for her dad or something like that, 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.360 not that, no, But but it's what that gets confused 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:09.200 for is it's actually the father has provided a model saying, hey, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.640 I'm genetically related to you. You turned up pretty good, 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.920 We have a pretty good relationship. Find a guy who's 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.400 kind of like me, and you can't miss the genetic crap. Shoot. Yeah, 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.960 and not even genetically, because the same has held true 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.960 through adoptive fathers and daughters they found in studies as 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.000 well well. No, I think they were saying adopted daughters 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:35.080 imprint on their genetic fathers. Oh no, I thought, I said, 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.480 I thought I read it as they still I got you, 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:39.920 I got you. Yeah, you're right, that would be the case. 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.360 But then that kind of undermines the genetic basis of it, 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.800 doesn't it a little bit. But that's the nature nurture thing, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.240 you know. Yeah, well, this whole thing is one big 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.320 question of like nature nurture. Yeah, I don't know. I 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.800 don't I don't think that's a that's an interesting can 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.240 of worms there that we're not going to completely open. Okay, 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.080 all right, UM, so are some other things that we 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.599 can so that. That's one that for women in particular, 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.680 the sexual imprinting on the fathers one way that they 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:12.120 are guided toward mate selection. Right. There's also UM personalities 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.560 another one. There's a genetic basis for that behavior's traits. UM. 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.880 There's all sorts of stuff that you can pick up 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.319 in somebody's face, UM, in their body shape, their body 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.800 style that suggests not necessarily that their genes are going 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.800 to mix well with your particular genes, but that they 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.640 are UM genetically sound I guess in one way. And 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.280 one of the big ones is symmetry. Both body symmetry 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:40.320 and facial symmetry is a classic UM standard for for 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.840 just universal beauty. Symmetry tends to be equated with beauty 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.280 and attractiveness. Yeah, we've talked about this quite a bit 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.800 in the past two Um, they've done studies and test 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:54.160 subjects kind of roundly rate symmetrical men and women as 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.559 not only um like just better looking, more attractive to them, 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.760 but potentially healthier. And they say that the whole you know, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.040 evolutionary basis of a lot of this is, whether we 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.120 know it or not, we're technically probably seeking out people 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.720 that we think are healthy and have good chains, and 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.319 women are seeking women who can carry their child and 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.480 they even have It's such a gross term, but um, supposedly, 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.120 you know, they've done studies where men prefer women with 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:25.559 a waste to hip ratio a point seven, which sounds 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.040 just like, I don't know, this sounds like something some 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:33.079 creep would carry around like a notebook and like some 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.880 calipers or something like that. Yeah, and be like, you're 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:37.880 really nice and funny at all, but you're waste to 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:39.840 hip ratio is not quite right for me. Well, it 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.280 goes both ways too. There's a preferred waste to hip 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:46.080 ratio ratio among men for women or women that women 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:50.400 have for men and supposedly that sounds really bizarre, but um, 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.480 that has a lot to do with fat deposits. Where 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:58.400 fat gets deposited around your hips depending on your sex 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:03.719 and x is driven by hormones, and especially fat deposition 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.959 and where it goes is driven by hormones. So if 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.719 you have your fat building up in all the right 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.480 places according to your sex you were, you were basically 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:17.520 broadcasting that you are quite fertile and feaking and ready 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:20.559 to raise ten kids and start a farm. Let's do 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.360 this is what your hips are shouting. Well, what you're doing. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:25.360 What you want is to seek someone out that you 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.080 can raise, uh, have a lot of and raise future 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:34.240 little employees. Basically, yeah, exactly Uh. And back to the 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.760 symmetry thing. Um. They have found also in studies that 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.000 the more symmetrical you are, um, you're also gonna have 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.400 more sex and more sexual partners in your life, especially 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.120 if you're a man, or particularly if you're a man. Yeah. Yeah, um, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.960 So it does seem to come down the answer to 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:57.240 this question why senior adult couples uh can sometimes start 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.240 to look like one another is that they are probably 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.280 genetically similar to begin with. Yeah, and then they go 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.880 through life experiences together that shaped them together. So you 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.120 put all that together, you've got an older, senior adult 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.720 couple who looks like brother and sister and they still 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.120 kiss in front of people. Yeah, you put that all together. 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:21.120 Throw them both in lavender track suits, which always helps. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.640 There is that thing too, where couples inadvertently I guess 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.360 start to dress or maybe very purposefully start to dress 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.040 a like. I got no problems with that, baby, uh. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.280 And then dog look alikes we should finish with, because 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:40.120 everyone loves those great listicles photos of people that look 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.240 like their dogs, and that is a thing that can happen. Uh. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.319 And they did a study in two thousand four. I 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.720 don't know how this got funded, um, but it apparently 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.920 indicated that people who shop for pure bred dogs uh 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.880 tend to look for dogs that look like them. Yeah. 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.000 I want I want to see my face looking back 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.160 at me in my dog's face. Yeah, I've seen it. 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.640 But they say that it's pure bread. Is only people 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.400 who like rescue, you know, MutS from shelters or they're 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:10.120 like whatever, I just like, how your your personality? I 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.520 guess that's right. So, um, there you go, there you 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.920 have it. I guess that means chuck. Then short stuff 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:23.120 is a way Stuff you Should Know is a production 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.040 of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.120 my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:30.920 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.