Recently, American scientists were able to explain where similar people come from in the world, and in particular, this concerns why the Chinese are so similar to each other. It turned out that the more isolated a particular ethnic group develops, the greater the similarity of its representatives.
Michael Sheehan, who holds the post of assistant professor of neurobiology at Cornell University, says that the set of genes that are directly responsible for the appearance of a person is a kind of deck of cards in the hands of nature, and regardless of how to shuffle it, it periodically falls out a combination that has already been encountered before.
Why is this happening?
Scientists have determined that similar people appear for the reason that a certain number of genes are associated with appearance much more than with any other areas of human anatomy. Of course, scientists have not yet been able to determine which genes are responsible for the width of the nose, the shape of the face and ears, as well as other features of appearance. But one fact remains clear - if people who are not related to each other, but have an external similarity. They will also be similar to each other at the genetic level, and the genes responsible for the appearance of a person are an excellent illustration of this.
An interesting fact is that human faces differ much more in comparison with such parts of the body as the feet or hands. Most likely, in the process of evolution, a separate emphasis was placed on the refinement of human faces so that representatives of a particular family could easily be distinguished from others.
Groups
In the process of evolution, several major ethnic groups have formed, in which similar people meet. The largest such group is the Chinese and Hindi, and at the same time, accordingly, the maximum chance to meet your double is present directly within a certain ethnic group. In other words, the possibility of a Chinese being able to meet an incredibly similar person among African Americans is virtually ruled out. At the same time, it is worth noting that within the Asian group there can be a huge number of doubles, and similar people are found here much more often than elsewhere.
Such an identity in certain cases reaches the level of identical twins, when the similarity is not only external, but also internal, since an almost identical set of genes can be present even in people who do not have close or distant kinship.
As a rule, people similar to each other and having the same nationality differ in a similar set of genes, since in isolated ethnic groups all kinds of infusions from even neighboring groups were minimized.
How many doubles can there be?
Nature periodically creates copies of man, but at the same time, academic science cannot reliably say why they appear, and only guesses remain. Of course, the most common version to date is the version described above, which suggests that people similar to each other are distinguished by an identical genetic device. For a reason unknown at the moment, several “versions” of a person appear, and at the same time they all have almost identical DNA. It is customary to call such doubles in the scientific community biogenic, since, despite the fact that they have different biological parents, they differ in similar genes.
It often happens that in nature a huge number of identical people appear in short periods of time, and there are also such incidents when these intervals stretch for hundreds or even thousands of years. That is why you should not be surprised when you see a double of some famous classic or political figure on the street.
Mathematical calculation
Mathematicians also decided to tackle this issue and contribute to the investigation of why people are alike. In particular, the probability theory was used, according to which the chances of random coincidence of gene sets are far from zero, because there are several billion people, and this number is only growing.
Some scientists say that the phenomenon of the appearance of such doubles is caused by the so-called "secret kinship." Even if you use standard mathematical analysis, you can understand that every person after 8 generations is a descendant of 256 relatives, related by blood relationship. Thus, if we talk not about 8, but, for example, about 30 generations, then this will be a million people, and all these closely related ties are based on the transfer of genetic material. In this regard, to some extent, all people in a certain ethnic category are relatives to some extent.
Doubles of famous people
Interesting examples of what very similar people are like can be found on domestic open spaces. For example, while Alla Pugacheva and Philip Kirkorov were spouses, the Primadonna said that she liked Nemtsov, since he looked very much like her husband. After that, many people really looked at them and realized that they had the same ears, eyes, nose, and both at that time were curly and had a very cheerful character, but at the same time did not have any even approximate relationship.
Historical doubles
There are also doubles that are extremely strongly spaced in time. For example, at the end of the 3rd century in Rome, the ruler was Emperor Maximinus, who was an almost perfect double of Adolf Hitler, and at the same time remained in history as an extremely tough dictator. His death was as inglorious as a distant descendant.
The busts of Thebes of Montuehmet (ruler of the ancient Egyptian Thebes) and Mao Zedong are very similar, despite the fact that the ruler of Thebes lived more than 700 years before our era.
Makeup
Probably, every resident or guest of the capital drew attention to the fact that on Red Square you can almost always meet the doubles of Lenin, Stalin and even a huge number of other famous personalities who earn extra money by taking pictures with passers-by. Also, such doubles can be found in a variety of theatrical performances.
In fact, quite often it happens that similarity is present only in racial and anthropological types, as well as in the appearance and proportions of the face. If you undress such people and completely wash away the makeup, then in this case the similarity will either completely disappear, or it will not be so obvious, which is quite important. Of course, quite often, various theater troupes prefer to hire in their composition just real doubles, and not just make-up personalities, since this allows you to make the performance truly unique.
How to find your double?
In fact, in the era of information development, this is nothing complicated. Outwardly similar people are often found on the Internet, and you can often see such photos in the news, on any sites or in various social networks. Already there is a huge number of precedents when people found their doubles on the network and posted photos for comparison.
There are even specialized sites through which there are similar people in the world in photography. Some provide the opportunity to find their own copy only among stars or historical figures, while others have expanded to the point that you can find your own double, even among ordinary people from other countries. On such resources, it’s quite simple to upload your own photo in a certain format, after which you can get one or even several photos of people very similar to you in a few days. If you wish, you can find similar faces of people who are interesting to you, and not look for your own double.
Similarity between spouses
Many people often notice that couples who have been living together for a long time begin to resemble each other, and some even become so similar that they are then perceived as brothers and sisters. First of all, many try to explain why people are similar in this case, by the fact that quite often we ourselves choose partners that are similar to us to a certain extent, but besides this, even facial features begin to become similar over time.
In the process of conducting research, scientists determined that visual similarity is a fairly important factor for attracting two people to each other. In particular, it was determined that two similar people of the opposite sex are most often attracted, especially if they have similar facial features.
What is the reason for this?
This is due to an innate tendency for everyone to look for someone they can trust and whom they “know”. Seeing in someone literally a reflection of ourselves, we begin to automatically associate a person with these thoughts.
Even more interesting is the fact that people who are visually similar to each other are prone to long-term relationships, they can trust each other and enjoy carefree cohabitation. According to psychologists from the University of Michigan, older couples who have been living together for several decades, too, begin to become similar over time, because people who are closely connected often imitate unconsciously different facial expressions and gestures of their loved ones.
Among other things, one cannot fail to say that happy couples often differ in similar physical characteristics.
Why are happy couples so much alike?
The most important role in this case is played by genetics, since people with different genetic parameters begin to attract each other much more than people with a similar genetic code.
Even ordinary people often notice, for example, that many women are often interested in men who resemble their fathers - this is a subconscious act of selection. Fathers are a role model for young girls, and this model is subsequently subconsciously postponed and forms the further choice of the spouse of an already adult woman. This is one of the reasons why couples are often alike.
People who belong to the same religion, race, age, and social stratum are always more likely to develop truly strong and lasting relationships. Subconsciously, they are pushed towards each other by the fact that for them culture, traditions and eating habits are not an obstacle, but are just another similarity.
If people live together for a long time, then they are more likely to end up adapting to their partner, and this life experience, according to scientists, ultimately affects the facial features. But reliably to say why people are alike, no one could.