Men marry Mom-lookalike, women do same with Dad-twin

William Atkins
Saturday, 06 September 2008 23:17

Science - Biology

They found significant correlations between young men and their female partner’s father (but not mother), especially with respect to the father’s central facial area, such as distance between mouth and brow, height of face, and distance between eyes, and size of nose.

Women were found to show resemblance to their male partner’s mother (but not father), especially concerning the mother’s lower facial area such as width of mouth, fullness of lips, and length and width of jaw.

That state in the abstract to their paper, “Our results support the sexual imprinting hypothesis which states that children shape a mental template of their opposite-sex parents and search for a partner who resembles that perceptual schema. The fact that only the facial metrics of opposite-sex parents showed resemblance to the partner's face tends to rule out the role of familiarity in shaping mating preferences.”

They conclude, "Human couples who are similar in physical and psychological characteristics are more likely to remain together than dissimilar partners, possibly leading to an increase in fertility.” [Health24.com: “Women pick dad lookalikes”]