Job flexibility is the key to keeping workers happy, productive and loyal to the company, a new study shows.

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, found that workers who enjoyed more work flexibility were also less likely to say health problems affected their performance at work.

"For managers, the results suggest that implementing flexible work arrangements can contribute to the bottom-line," said Joseph Grzywacz, a professor of family medicine at the university.

Workplace flexibility refers to the ability of employees to modify where, when and how long work their work is performed.

Telecommuting, flexitime and job sharing were the main types of flexibility cited in the study published in the Psychologist-Manager journal.

The researchers studied a health survey completed by 3,193 employees of a large multinational pharmaceutical company. They used the information to determine how increases or decreases in perceived flexibility from one year to the next were associated with a variety of factors.

Decreases in flexibility over the year were associated with reduced job commitment, but had little impact on absence, they said.

Offering a variety of alternative work arrangements and training managers and supervisors to be supportive of workers' personal lives may help in creating a culture of flexibility, researchers added.

別再尋找和你互補(bǔ)的愛人了，我們需要和自己相似的愛人，因?yàn)橄嗨频南嗝惨馕吨�我們有相似的個(gè)性。

新的研究顯示，和某人在一起時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)，我們和他的長(zhǎng)相就越相似。

研究人員選取160對(duì)夫妻的單人照片，分別給11名的男性和11名女性看，讓他們判斷這些夫妻的年齡、魅力點(diǎn)和性格特征。但是在此之前，他們并不知道誰和誰是一對(duì)。

22名參與者把他們認(rèn)為相貌和性格相似的人擺在一起，而他們也恰恰就是真正的夫妻。而且，在一起生活時(shí)間越長(zhǎng)的夫妻，相似性就越明顯。

研究人員認(rèn)為共同的經(jīng)歷造成了他們的相似性。

英國(guó)利物浦研究人員托尼·利特爾說：相貌和性格之間有關(guān)系這一想法聽起來有點(diǎn)怪異，但卻是有生物學(xué)依據(jù)的。

他說：“睪丸激素直接影響男性化的臉型形成，也影響人的行為。臉可以反映我們的情緒，長(zhǎng)時(shí)間重復(fù)一個(gè)表情也會(huì)改變我們的臉。”

例如，一個(gè)人總是笑就會(huì)產(chǎn)生笑紋，別人就能看出這個(gè)人生活挺幸福的。

此項(xiàng)研究顯示，人們利用面部特征來判斷某人的特點(diǎn)，對(duì)于每張臉，人們判斷的依據(jù)也有所不同。但是眼睛和微笑絕對(duì)是判斷的最重要依據(jù)。

利特爾說：“笑容是社交中十分重要的友好表示，眼睛也是精力是否集中的最有力證明。”

利特爾說：整個(gè)面部也很重要。例如，由寬下巴和上揚(yáng)的眉峰等組成的男性化面部特征會(huì)讓人覺得不友好、不愿意合作。