'Doppelbangers' debunked: Celebrity couples who look alike are no more likely to stay together than pairs who have different faces, study finds
- Study finds no evidence to suggest people who look similar are a better match
- READ MORE: We DO find people who look like us more attractive, study finds
From Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, to Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, celebrity couples often look weirdly alike.
In fact, the phenomenon has coined the term 'doppelbanger' – two people with similar facial features who are intimately involved.
This has led to speculation that looking similar is somehow conducive to a better or more long-lasting relationship.
But researchers in Germany, who used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse celebrity photos, have found there is no evidence to support this.
Celebrity couples who look alike are no more likely to stay together than pairs who have different faces, such as David and Victoria Beckham, and Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, they say.
Despite the results, there is convincing evidence from celebrities that we are attracted to those who look similar to us (top row) although non-doppelbanger couples are evidence that the opposite is also true (bottom row)
The new study was led by Veronika Shavlokhova at the Maxillofacial Surgery University Hospital Ruppin-Brandenburg in Germany.
The researchers wanted to look at an 'underexamined' facet of romantic relationships – the link between facial similarity and partnership duration.
'The longstanding fascination with why certain individuals form and sustain romantic partnerships extends from personal curiosity to academic inquiry,' Shavlokhova and colleagues say in the journal Symmetry.
'One popular theory is that physical resemblance, particularly in facial features, plays a pivotal role in romantic relationships.
'Prevailing studies on romantic relationships often emphasise facial symmetry as a factor in partner selection and marital satisfaction.'
For the study, they used CELEB-A, a dataset of more than 200,000 celebrity photos provided by the Multimedia Lab at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Their final sample comprised 1,822 heterosexual celebrity couples with an average time as a couple – either married or unmarried – of about nine years.
AI was used to thoroughly analyse each celebrity's facial features, including the position of the nose, width of the mouth and distance between the eyes.
SIMILAR: Many celebrity couples, including actress Rooney Mara and actor Joaquin Phoenix (pictured), look alike
SIMILAR: Husband and wife Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes are noted for their incredible facial similarities, especially around the eyes
SIMILAR: Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons - noted for similar skin tones and even heights - pictured here in LA last year
But ultimately, the study found no significant correlation between facial similarity and partnership duration, nor facial dissimilarity and partnership duration.
The relationship between facial features and the duration of partnerships might be 'complex' and other nuanced factors might play a 'more critical role', the experts say.
Interestingly, the analysis also found no difference in facial similarity between married and non-married couples.
'Overall, these findings suggest that facial dissimilarity, whether evaluated for the whole face or for individual landmark regions, does not serve as a robust predictor for the duration of partnerships,' the experts say.
'These findings emphasise the complexity of predicting relationship outcomes based solely on facial attributes and suggest that other nuanced factors might play a more critical role in determining relationship dynamics.'
Looking like your partner is of course not a phenomenon that's exclusive to the rich and famous.
A popular Instagram page called @siblingsordating is dedicated to snaps of ordinary couples who appear eerily similar, mixed with pictures of siblings.
DISSIMILAR: English actress Emily Blunt and her husband John Krasinski, star of The US Office
DISSIMILAR: British stars Sam Taylor-Johnson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson attend the Charles Finch and Chanel 2024 Pre-Bafta Party at the Hertford Street Club, London last month
DISSIMILAR: In terms of physical attributes, David and Victoria Beckham are about as similar as their respective industries - football and music
But this study looked specifically at celebrities, which the team admit 'may limit the generalizability of the results to broader populations'.
Despite the results, there is convincing evidence that we are attracted to those who look similar to us, although non-doppelbanger couples are evidence that the opposite is also true.
A study last year found we are attracted to people with similar facial features because we perceive them as 'kind and trustworthy'.
Looking similar to someone can create a sense of 'kinship' which can lead to more pro-social behaviour and a greater likelihood of becoming a couple.