Why Are We Attracted to People Who Look Like Us?

Dylan Spence

If you were on any kind of social media at all in the past three years, then you’re likely familiar with the phenomenon “Siblings or Dating.” Originally created on Instagram, the game would display a picture of two people together and ask the audience to guess whether they were siblings or dating. This trend blew up because of Youtubers like Courtreezy and Alana Lintao who created reaction videos to these accounts, influencing thousands of Gen Z kids to play this game for themselves. To this day, “Siblings or Dating” remains a popular social media game to play because of channels like Jubilee who have revived the trend. 

Although the game was created for entertainment, it does raise a fair question: why do so many of these couples look alike (or in some cases, practically identical)?

Believe it or not, there is a scientific explanation behind why humans are attracted to people who look like themselves. The similarity-attraction theory, also known as the law of attraction, suggests that individuals tend to be more attracted to people who share similar characteristics in attitude, interests, and physical traits. This makes sense because we have an easier time relating to people who are into the same things as us. While pop culture perpetuates the idea that “opposites attract,” this tends to not be the case for romance.

In the TV show “Brain Games” (specifically, season seven, episode three), a social experiment takes place where volunteers are shown photos of three different people and are asked to pick the face they find most attractive. What these volunteers don’t know is that one of these three faces has been photoshopped to contain 22% of their own facial features. The researchers found that over 75% of volunteers picked the person that was edited to look like themselves. 

As humans, we crave familiarity. Biologically, our brains are programmed to seek comfort in order to survive potentially dangerous situations. If you ask two similar-looking people how they became friends or romantic partners, they might say that they “just clicked.” Interacting with people similar to us, both physically and personality-wise, allow us to relate easier due to shared backgrounds and experiences. This “click” between people that arises from common interests may very well spark the beginning of a bond that can last a lifetime.