“Women Marry Men Who Look Like Dad”
(I didn’t write this but it goes along with some of what I have written here. Enjoy.)
(I added the images!)
Women Marry Men Who Look Like Dad
00:01 28 April 04
NewScientist.com news service
Women tend to choose husbands who look like their fathers – even if they are adopted, reveals a new study.
The research shows that women use their dads as a template for picking a mate by a process called "sexual imprinting", says Tamas Bereczkei at the University of Pécs in Hungary and colleagues.
Husbands and wives have long been suggested to look alike and this is known to occur in many animal species. Couples that look like each other are also more likely to share common genes, and having a degree of similarity is believed to beneficial.
This might explain the study’s findings, suggests Glenn Weisfeld, one of the research team and a human ethologist at Wayne State University, Detroit, US "There seems to be an advantage for animals to select a mate somewhat similar to themselves genetically," he told New Scientist.
"One good possibility is that there are some fortuitous genetic combinations which are retained in the offspring if both parents are similar," he says. "In humans there is evidence to show a lower rate of miscarriage."
However, he points out that there is a balance between the benefits of marrying someone genetically close and the harmful effects of inbreeding. "There seems to be an ideal balance, maybe around the first or second cousin point."
Newborn ducklings
Imprinting is a fast, instinctive form of learning, perhaps best known from the phenomenon in which newborn ducklings bond with the first object they see.
To test whether women use imprinting to base their marital choices on the appearance of their fathers, the researchers took 26 adoptive families and examined how alike various family members looked. Using adoptive families meant inherited preferences could be ruled out.
Nearly 250 students were asked to rate similarities within three sets of photos. The first showed photos of the wife and four possible husbands, one of whom was the real spouse.
The second showed a photo of the adoptive father as he would have looked when his daughter was between two and eight years of age, and the possible husbands. The third set showed the adoptive mother and the four possible husbands.
The students correctly matched husbands and wives
significantly more than they would have by chance alone. But the similarity between husbands and adoptive fathers was most striking. Where the judges might have matched a quarter of the husbands with the fathers by chance, they actually matched 38 per cent correctly.
There was no significant resemblance between the husband and the adoptive mother.
Emotional warmth
An "unexpected" finding, says Weisfeld, was that fathers who were judged by their daughters to have showed the most emotional warmth were much more likely to have son-in-laws who looked like them.
"Our results support the notion of a long-lasting effect of attachment during childhood on later mating preferences," the team concludes. They suggest that people form a "mental model" of their opposite-sex parent’s appearance, which they then seek out in later life.
But Weisfeld points out that mating decisions are complex in humans and many other biological and social factors will play a part. For example, studies have shown that a person’s smell can also help someone judge how related they are to a potential partner.
Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2672)
Shaoni Bhattacharya
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994928
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Opus rules 🙂
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I have NEVER been interested in a man that looked like my father!
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Hmm. I don’t think the Boy looks like my dad – but he kinda acts like him sometimes. This was very interesting.
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My husband and father are totally different in every way. I do tend to be attracted to other men that *might* have a few of my dad’s qualities. The good ones, at least.
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I occasionally see characteristics in my boyfriend that are similar to my father’s…and it grosses me out. Granted, if you put them side by side and did a thorough comparison, they’d be wildly different, but there are little things here and there that remind me of my dad, which isn’t cool in the least, because I hate my father. But that’s more than I feel like going into today.
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The only thing my husband and my father have in common is being men – it stops there.
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what about men and women who resemble their mothers?
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lol i didnt marry a guy that looked like my dad, but they had the same first name!
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Thank you for the note.
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RYN: I am right as rain. Truly. My taking a break is a good thing. Thanks for asking, Nunz. Take care.
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My Dad’s a lady’s man, guess it wouldn’t be the most horrid thing in the world, lol, ewwww. Nahhh, he couldn’t look too much like him. Although….I’ll admit I am attracted to the same type of body build, muscular and height isn’t a big deal. Like ’em a bit shorter. Wait, I love bald though and Daddy isn’t…it’s just so complicated, LOL
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Ryn: Yeah, why don’t you go right on ahead and do that, Mr. Willis? LOL… : ) Also had a crush on Daddy Warbucks from Annie and Mr. Clean is pretty hot as well. I like the genies I guess. Send me a picture after you do it, LMAO!!!
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ryn: I agree… Every situation is presented for us to learn from. My faith/belief in this is the only thing that gets me thru at times…
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I hate it my my diary boyfriend leaves for days. I always wonder if he’s ever gonna come back… : (
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LOL, WHO is the tease?!?!?!!!!!!!! You’re horrible. I just want to be held. : )
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I have dated every looking man there is. From Tom Cruise to Rob Zombie. All attractive like some celebrity or another. So maybe I like movies more than my dad. The FUNNIEST part is that my current love/lust object, Adam, he looks alot like my dad when he was 32. :-O
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Ryn: LOL. Is that ALL you ever think of? It’s great 1/2 the time, but can’t you be sweet, too? ha ha ha ha ha ha, doubt it. You never even tell me the truth. WAH
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Ryn: No, you didn’t. The pics are fine, lol.
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Ryn: Awww, you CAN be sweet… Yeah, it’s awful, there are too many and still none, all at the same time, lol.
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I thought it was women are most likely to be with a man that reminds or acts like their father. If that’s the case then I sure did pick the ho of the bunch. LOL
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RYN: Yeah, you’re right. As usual. Dammit. 😛
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ryn – thanks, yep that was the program i learned and used.
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I’m seriously thinking of doing it, w/out the part about the pot. LOL
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Ryn: Technically, no, I don’t have them (balls) but I did post it, it’s on there now. So there. whatsamatta, were ya wrong? LOL… If I did have them, they’d be bigger than yours, ha ha, you hear what I’m sayin’….Bruce?
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Oops, I mean….Mr. Willis
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I’ll send you the website and username just as soon as I get my answers. Geez, you make me feel like the paperboy…hunting you down to make you pay for your subscription…LOL
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Oh why not? It’s there for everyone else in the world to see. Not that I’d want it shared w/the rest of OD, kinda like your first name, LMAO. http://www.match.com, user n-ame=2oclock, let me know if you find it. Did you know the word n-a-m-e isn’t permitted here? Weird.
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I like it when you have conversations w/yourself on my diary. Very cute, lol…
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Damn, I didn’t make that private. Anyway, I shared, so why don’t you?
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Yeah, give me your name and address so I can send the check… ; )
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Did I ask for your physical description? Umm, no. Already have it, lol. I said name and address, remember your commission check? LOL… Make my liver spots dance, ha ha. 103, huh? I bet. Geez, all I’d need is some height, huge boobs, and a bit more weight and you could call me Anna Nicole Smith. Ugh. Come on….tell me your age. I won’t tell.
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Ryn: That’s right, I wouldn’t tell. You’re right though, you do hold my attention, very much so…whatever your age. *kisses*
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Me either, I never picked men that looked like my dad!
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I couldn’t resist this one. I married a man who looked like my brother who looked nothing like our father. In later years my son looked a lot like my brothers brother. And if my daughters married even close to what their father had looked like mmmmmmmmmmmm. Instead they prefer short men who are intelligent and giving but not always the best looking. AA was tall and would have made a wonderful
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A wonderful calender model. Thanks for your note. I do have a question. Do men with testosterone even get near to peace?
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I think that is so bogus. My biological aunt married a man so far from what her dad looks like or acts like. I don’t know my real biological father so I cant say for myself. My husbands dau was raised by her mother and step father for a few yrs and then raised by her mom and her moms lover. His dau didn’t marry a man that is like her dad or her step dad.
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