Humans 'Attracted To Partners That Look Like Their Parents'

Ananova ^ | 1-8-2003

[blam]

Humans 'attracted to partners that look like their parents'

Researchers have concluded opposites do not necessarily actually attract.

A team of experts from St Andrews University found women are attracted to men who remind them of their fathers and men to women who look like their mothers.

They found that people are far more likely to marry those who look like their opposite sex parent, particularly when it comes to hair and eye colour.

Anthony Little, 25, who led the research, said: "We found that people really did pick partners who resembled their opposite sex parent.

"It is something a lot of people have never looked at or thought about, that their partner shares the same hair and eye colour of their mother or father. But there was clear evidence of this."

Dr Little, whose findings are published in this week's Evolution and Human Behaviour journal, says it is well-known that if a person or animal is constantly exposed to an image, they become more attracted to and comforted by it.

"There are obviously a number of other factors such as personality, etc, that people look for in their partner but it seems looks are important, whether a person knows it or not."

He added: "So the old saying that opposites attract really does seem to have been disproven. Rather, birds of a feather flock together, it seems."

The researchers say many animals, mainly birds and monkeys, also tended to choose partners which resembled their parents.

An earlier study by the St Andrews team found people with older parents are usually attracted to older-looking partners and youngsters in mixed-race marriages tend to be attracted to a person of the same colour as their opposite sex parent.

Story filed: 13:19 Wednesday 8th January 2003

[#1CTYankee]

I wonder what Sigmund Freud would say about this.

[mhking]

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!

[pgkdan]

HA! This couldn't be further from the truth in my case and my wife's if it came out of Tom Daschle's mouth.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Hehe, me too.

[paltz]

Nothing new here. So we choose partners who remind us of our parents...for better or worse. Every little girl wants to marry their daddy and every little boy wants a wife to be his mommy.

[wimpycat]

Yeah, but nobody wants to marry anybody who looks like Mama or Daddy! (Blecch!)

[trebb]

That explains why my wife is a woman...

[k2blader]

*LOL*!!!

Nuff said.

[wimpycat]

My daddy has brown hair, blue eyes, and has had a "comb over" ever since I can remember.

My husband has a full head of thick brown hair and brown eyes.

My mother in law has dark skin, gray hair and brown eyes.

I have the whitest-white skin imaginable, auburn hair and hazel eyes.

[paltz]

Well I hardly think simply eye color and hair color will constitute an exact likeness of one's parents. I think the article is referring to familiarity being something we take into consideration when choosing our partners.

[ASA Vet]

Same here. My Mom is of Northern European ancestory.
I choose a beautiful Asian as a wife both times.
But my three sons all are drawn to blonds.
100% opposite of what we were supposed to do.

[ClearCase_guy]

Were they careful about ethnic groupings? I mean, many African-Americans marry someone whose coloring might match their opposite-sex parent -- but that's pretty meaningless, right? How about Jews marrying Jews? Or Norwegian-Americans marrying someone from their hometown (which has a high percentage of Norwegian-Americans). Do the Irish marry a lot of redheads? Because the opposite sex parent was a redhead? Or because there are a lot of redheads in Ireland?

This report could be noteworthy, but I wonder if they missed the obvious.

[wimpycat]

They found that people are far more likely to marry those who look like their opposite sex parent, particularly when it comes to hair and eye colour.

This is what the article says.

I do think, however, that we end up with partners who have similar personality traits to our parents, but I don't think looks have a thing to do with it.

[Grampa Dave]

Well in my case and my relatives, this is pure hog wash.

My mother was/is a brunette of about 5'. My wife is a blond of 5'8". Our son's wife is a Mediteranean Beauty with dark brown hair. My sister is married to a blond guy who is 6'4, and our Dad had black hair before it became white and was 5' 10".

I can't think of a single relative on my side or my wife's side who married someone with even a slight resembalance to their parents or even their grandparents.

[B-Chan]

My mom: short, with dark hair, hazel eyes.

My dad: short, with brown hair, green eyes.

My wife: tall, blue-eyed blonde.

QED

[pabianice]

"Paging Mr. Oedipus; Mr. Oedipus please pick up the white phone...

[redangus]

I have been married twice and neither of my wives looked anythng like my Mother. This also goes for my sisters who married men who looked nothing like my Father. So I guess my family is the statisical abberation. But wait, I have just been thinking of sisters-in-law, neices , nephews, cousins and friends, and none of them married people who looked anything like either of their parents, even when there were multiple marriages. Hummmmmmm?

[blam]

"Because the opposite sex parent was a redhead? Or because there are a lot of redheads in Ireland?"

Redheads 'Are Neanderthals'

[ModelBreaker]

Hmmmmm. My wife's father (rest his soul) was a 125 lb Filipino. I am 180, caucasian and, as far as I can tell, bear no resemblance to my late father-in-law.

My mother is half-swedish and looks it. My wife is a lovely Filipina who looks American Indian.

Sometimes I guess there are exceptions to every rule.