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August 12, 2011

Strange But True!

Q. “Do I love you because you are beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?” wondered Prince Charming in Rodger and Hammerstein's “Cinderella.” What psychological truth was he getting at?

A. Just as familiarity breeds fondness and likeness begets liking, love tends to see loveliness, says David G. Myers in “Social Psychology, Tenth Edition.” Studies show that the more in love two people are, the less attractive they find the rest of the opposite sex. “The grass may be greener on the other side, but happy gardeners are less likely to notice,” add Rowland Miller and Jeffrey Simpson. Or as Myers puts it, to some extent beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.


 
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