When Owners Look Like Their Dogs, and Vice Versa

We've all seen it; an owner walks by with their pet and the resemblance is striking -- sometimes even comically so. How is it possible? Are people drawn to dogs that look like them? The phenomenon has been researched for years. Here's what scientists have found...When playing a matching game, studies show that participants can pair images of owners and their pups with a higher-than-chance success rate. Research suggests that the Law of Attraction might be at play here -- humans simply seem like the familiar (also known as the mere exposure effect), and will therefore be more likely to bring home a dog that bares resemblance to themselves.Japanese psychologist Sadahiko Nakajima, who has spent years studying the phenomenon, wanted to know more. In a study he conducted with over 500 undergraduate students, he had participants "choose the set of dog-owner pairs that physically resemble each other." And then, taking it a step further, he included images that blocked sections of both the dog and the human's face -- first the mouth, then the eyes, then everything but the eyes. His findings were fascinating: when only the eye region were visible, nearly 76% of the participants were still able to make correct matches -- that's without seeing any other features.So is it all in the eyes? The results, Nakajima concuded, “clearly show that individuals make decisions on dog-owner resemblance primarily by comparing features of the eye region between dogs and owners."Interestingly enough, studies have also shown that our pets experience a boost of oxytocin, or the "love hormone" in a similar way that we do. Could it be a meeting of eyes, a love at first sight? We'd like to think so.Credit:Why You Look Like Your Dog, The AtlanticPeople Really Do Look Like Their Dogs, Huffington PostWhat Makes People Look Like Their Pets? SlatePhoto via Cesar.