New research shows that mothers will find paternal similarities in their newborns even if there are none.

After the business of birth, what’s the next most important thing? Why, looking for paternal similarities in your newborn, of course. Or so say scientists from Sheffield University and Montpellier University in France…

Spot the difference!

Admittedly, most parents enjoy playing ‘spot the similarities’ with their new
arrival but, rather than this being coincidental harmless fun, apparently
a mother’s evolutionary psyche is behind the game.

The next time you hear a mother cooing over her son having his father’s
eyes or her daughter having her daddy’s hair, you can enjoy a smug smile
that she is, in fact, desperately trying to convince her partner that
she didn’t sleep around.

The Anglo-French research team believes that this female strategy has
evolved over the years to calm any male anxiety over paternity. Because
if he’s convinced the child is his own, he is more like to be fatherly
and take an active role in looking after both his baby and his partner.

Sixty-nine families took part in the survey, with a total of 83 children
under the age of six involved. Each parent was asked whom their babies
and children most resembled. One hundred per cent of mothers said that
their boys looked like their fathers, compared to 77 per cent of their
daughters. More than eight out of ten men also believed their child resembled
them.

Pictures of the children were also shown to 209 independent judges. Interestingly,
their conclusions differed greatly from those of the parents, with 50
per cent resembling their mum, while only a third looked like their dad.

The research, which will soon be published in the academic journal Evolution
and Human Behaviour, found that both boys and girls resemble their
mothers more. The summary to their findings was not entirely praiseworthy
of maternal motives. “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.”

Cheers, guys!

Do Not Antagonise (DNA) test

If indeed this is all to be believed, fathers will have to stick around
for a couple of years to see if their sons are their own as, according
to the report, boys begin to resemble their dads more between the ages
of two and three.Mums of daughters may be scuppered as girls, apparently,
carry on looking like their mums. No beard worries then …

Of course, the easiest way to clarify any doubt is to go down the well
trodden celebrity route of demanding DNA tests, rather than involve a
panel of independent judges to look at the family photo album. Interestingly
enough, two celebs who have insisted on DNA testing were ones where, allegedly,
the physical resemblance to their supposed offspring was startlingly obvious.
Mick Jagger wanted proof of paternity for his son Lucas despite rather
evident facial traits, while Wimbledon winner Boris Becker thought his
one-night-stand-in-a-broom-cupboard date could not be serious in insisting
that the little newborn girl sporting a head of red hair was his own.