There's an old theory that says first-born babies were genetically predispositioned to look more like their father. It was believed this was so the father accepted the child was his and would provide and care for them.
These theories obviously date way, way back, long before paternity tests existed.
But even today, all new parents can’t help but look at their baby and wonder, who does it look like? It’s often one of the first things people will comment on when they meet a little one for the first time.
But is there actually any truth to the theory at all?
A 1995 study from the University of California sought to prove the theory by matching photos of 1-year-old children with pictures of their father. The study asked 122 participants to match photos of children at 1-year, 10-years and 20-years with photos of both their mothers and fathers. In infants, just under 50% guessed correctly for the fathers, as opposed to around 37% for the mothers. The success rates decreased significantly in 10-year-olds and rose slightly again in 20-year-olds.
A similar study in 2004 with a much larger sample size found that, in fact, most infants resemble both parents equally.
These days we know that children share 50% of their parent’s DNA, and there are dominant genes and recessive genes – which leaves rather a lot of room for variation. Yep, the cavemen definitely didn’t get this memo either.
Add to this the fact that babies grow and change so much in the first year and every year after that. Some will start out with the spitting image of one parent, but as they grow they end up looking much more like the other.
Why do first born babies look like their father?
