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.

別再尋找和你互補的愛人了，我們需要和自己相似的愛人，因為相似的相貌意味著我們有相似的個性。

新的研究顯示，和某人在一起時間越長，我們和他的長相就越相似。

研究人員選取160對夫妻的單人照片，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、魅力點和性格特征。但是在此之前，他們并不知道誰和誰是一對。

22名參與者把他們認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，在一起生活時間越長的夫妻，相似性就越明顯。

研究人員認為共同的經歷造成了他們的相似性。

英國利物浦研究人員托尼·利特爾說：相貌和性格之間有關系這一想法聽起來有點怪異，但卻是有生物學依據的。

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，長時間重復一個表情也會改變我們的臉。”

例如，一個人總是笑就會產生笑紋，別人就能看出這個人生活挺幸福的。

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

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：整個面部也很重要。例如，由寬下巴和上揚的眉峰等組成的男性化面部特征會讓人覺得不友好、不愿意合作。