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If you're careful enough when walking along the streets or in public parks, over time you'll notice that some dogs mysteriously resemble their owners. In many cases and strangely the pets they can be so similar that they look like miniature clones.
It's not a rule of thumb, but often, to some extent, people end up being very similar to their pets and vice versa. In fact, in some parts of the world, contests are held to see which owner is most like your dog. There is some science that supports this popular idea. At PeritoAnimal we investigated the topic and we were not surprised to find some data from this myth, which is no longer such a myth, and we revealed the answer. Is it true that dogs look like their owners? Keep reading!
a familiar trend
What makes people relate and then choose a dog as a pet is not so much at the conscious level. People don't say, "This dog looks like me or will be like me in a few years." However, in some cases, people may experience what psychologists call "the mere effect of exposure’.
There is a psychological-brain mechanism that explains this phenomenon and, although subtle, it is quite marked and in many cases it is obvious. The answer to success has to do with the word "familiarity", everything familiar will be approved at first glance because you have a load of positive feeling around you.
When we see ourselves in the mirror, in certain reflections and in photographs, every day and, at an unconscious level, the general features of our own face seem all too familiar. Science suggests that, as is the case with everything we've seen many times, we should be very enamored of our face. Because puppies that look like their owners are part of this mirror effect. The dog ends up being a kind of reflective surface of its human companion, our pet reminds us of our face and this is a pleasant feeling that we transfer to them.
scientific explanation
In several studies during the 1990s, behavioral scientists found some people who look so much like their dog that outside observers could perfectly match humans and dogs based solely on photographs. Furthermore, they suggested that this phenomenon could be universal and very common, regardless of culture, race, country of residence, etc.
In these experiments, participants in the test were shown three images, one person and two dogs, and asked to match the owners with the animals. Race participants successfully matched 16 races with their owners out of a total of 25 pairs of images. When people decide to choose a dog as a pet, some take some time because they look for one that, to some extent, resembles them, and when they come across the right one, they get what they want.
the eyes, the window of the soul
This is a worldwide known statement that really has to do with our personality and the way we see life. Sadahiko Nakajima, a Japanese psychologist at Kwansei Gakuin University, suggests in her latest research from the year 2013 that it is the eyes that sustain the fundamental similarity between people.
She carried out studies where she selected pictures of dogs and people who had their noses and mouths covered and only their eyes uncovered. Still, the participants were successful in choosing the puppies together with their respective owners. However, when the opposite was done and the eye region was covered, the participants in the competition could not get it right.
Thus, given the question, it's true that dogs look like their owners, we can answer without any doubt that yes. In some cases the similarities are more noticeable than in others, but in most there are similarities that do not go unnoticed. In addition, said similarities do not always coincide with the physical appearance, since, as mentioned in the previous point, when choosing a pet, we unconsciously look for one that resembles us, whether in appearance or personality . So, if we are calm we will choose a calm dog, while if we are active we will look for one that can follow our pace.
Also check in this PeritoAnimal article if the dog can be vegetarian or vegan?
