Is it a coincidence that dogs and owners look alike?

We bet that you have seen dogs and owners that have similar looks, personalities and behaviors. It’s more normal than you think and it’s not a causality. Without even knowing it when we choose a dog we do it based on our own characteristics.  For example, a person who enjoys taking long naps will choose a calm dog, while a nervous person will probably choose a nervous dog.

Even though the initial decision is important it’s not the only reason why dogs and people look alike. Other things influence as well, for example the capacity our dog has to imitate. Dogs tend to adapt to their environment to survive, they especially adapt to their owners who are the ones responsible for their basic needs: food, love, shelter, etc. Dogs need to feel a connection with people around them and they will do anything to please their owners.

Dogs end up adopting our routines, likes, dislikes and personality. The same thing happens when humans live together, we end up liking the same things and having a similar character.

Sadahiko Nakajima, a psychologist, conducted a study to determine if it was true that dogs and owners had similar facial features. In order to test this, he had a group of students guess which dog belonged to each person from a group of twenty dogs and owners by showing them pictures.

To make it more complicated some of the pictures had parts of the face hidden. When the volunteers were shown the entire picture, they could detect the correct dog and owner faster. When shown pictures that covered parts of the face volunteers took longer to find out which dog belonged to each person. The study had a 74% of correct answers, do you think it’s coincidence?

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