Why all mums say baby looks just like daddy

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Cooing over the latest addition to the family, mothers are often quick to remark 'He's got his father's eyes' or 'She's got daddy's hair.'

It might seem to be just gentle banter over the baby's looks as the proud new parents celebrate the new arrival.

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Babies who look like their dads

But such seemingly innocent comments are in fact a concerted, if subconscious, effort by mummy to convince their partner that he really is the father, according to new research.

The findings of a joint study by scientists in England and France show that while many mothers may say their new baby looks like his or her dad, this is simply a plot which has evolved over time to allay male anxiety about paternity.

The research, to be published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, contends that if dad sees himself in the baby, it makes him fatherly and more prepared to look after mum and child.

Not that every dad initially thinks that way, of course. Mick Jagger insisted on a DNA test to prove his parenthood of his son Lucas Morad by model Luciana Morad despite the youngster, now seven, soon inheriting his shape of face and round-eyed stare.

Although Jagger disputed that he was the father until the test proved him wrong, he is now close to his son and contributes to his upkeep.

Likewise another philandering celebrity, Boris Becker, who also disputed parenthood following a fleeting affair - in his case a fumble in a broom cupboard at the London restaurant Nobu.

But the unmistakable features of red-haired daughter Anna, now six, again proved DNA tests superfluous to requirements.

Other famous dads whose offspring are their splitting image, such as Jamie Oliver and his daughter Poppy Honey, Rod Stewart and his baby son Alastair, and Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff and his son Corey and daughter Holly, have never doubted their little ones are a chip off the old block.

The new research was conducted by scientists at Sheffield University and Montpellier University in France using a sample of 69 families with a total of 83 children up to the age of six between them.

The parents were asked whom their babies and children most resembled. Pictures of the babies and children were then shown to 209 independent judges who were asked to study them for similarities to their parents, and the two sets of results were then compared.

All the mothers said boys looked liked their father, and 77 per cent said girls looked like him too. More than eight out of 10 men thought the child took after them.

Yet the judges decided half the babies looked like mum, with one in three looking like dad.

The report says: "We found that mothers claim a paternal resemblance at birth that does not correspond to the actual resemblance, suggesting possible manipulation of the perception of facial resemblance to increase confidence of paternity."

The research found that for newborns, boys and girls actually resemble their mothers more. Girls continue to resemble their mothers as they grow older, while boys begin to resemble their fathers more between the ages of two and three.

"The resemblance ascribed by the parents shows that, at birth, mothers ascribe a resemblance to the father, as previously found, although assessment by external judges revealed the opposite," the report says.

"These results suggest that facial appearance is a cue for kin recognition between a father and a child."

 

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