BEIJING, Oct. 31 -- Attractive fathers do not pass their looks on to
their sons but they will hand their good looks down to their daughters, research
shows.
Psychologists have found that while both parents influence the
attractiveness of their daughters, the attractiveness of male children is not
inherited.
Handsome men with masculine looks are likely to pass on masculine features,
but not facial attractiveness.
Prof David Perrett and Prof Elisabeth Cornwell, of the University of St
Andrews, also said that a mother's beauty made no difference to the
attractiveness of her sons as adults.
The theory suggests it is not unusual for attractive parents to produce a
beautiful daughter while failing to pass on the same good looks to a son.
While many celebrity mothers produce stunning daughters - such as Goldie
Hawn and her daughter Kate Hudson or Jerry Hall and her daughter Georgia - the
same is not necessarily true of celebrity fathers.
Sean Stewart, the son of Rod Stewart and his first wife Alana, would
probably be judged less attractive than his model sister Kimberly.
Prof Perrett said it has previously been suggested that a woman could
increase her own reproductive success by choosing a "sexy" mate whose genes
would be passed on to male offspring, making them irresistible to the next
generation.
But the new study, published in the current edition of the journal Animal
Behaviour, contradicts the theory.
He said: "We checked to see if male and female facial traits are inherited.
For the male line, we find that facial masculinity conforms to the rule 'like
father - like son'. Masculine dads have masculine sons.
"But we did not find any evidence that facial attractiveness is passed from
father to son.
"We are perplexed as to why we did not find any evidence for the
inheritance of attractiveness in males, through either the female or male
parent.
"The answer may be because women vary considerably in the extent to which
they find masculinity attractive.
"We know that attractive feminine women show a strong preference for
masculine male faces for long-term partners."
The researchers studied the family photo albums of students, collecting
images of over 100 females and 100 males and their respective biological parents
taken over several years.
The photos of each student, father and mother were rated separately for
attractiveness, and for femininity/masculinity.
They found evidence that attractiveness passed from
both father and mother to daughter, and also that attractive fathers were more
likely to produce attractive, feminine daughters, whether the mother was
attractive or not.
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Brad Pitt and his daughter Shiloh Nouvel
Jolie-Pitt.(Photo: CRIENGLISH. com) Photo
Gallery>>> |
Earlier research in America found that attractive parents were 26 percent
more likely to have a daughter than a son as their first child - a statistic
apparently borne out by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's first child.
In that study the researches concluded that "beautiful parents have more
daughters than ugly parents."
(Source: China Daily/Agencies)
