Preference for faces resembling opposite-sex parents is moderated by emotional closeness in childhood

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.065Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Predictions of sexual imprinting theory were tested in a face-preference task.

  • Shape-only opposite-sex transforms resembling subjects and their parents were created.

  • Childhood attachment predicted preferences for faces resembling opposite-sex parents.

  • Low rejection by opposite-sex parents enhanced appeal of faces which resembled them.

Abstract

Several studies have found that individuals select partners who resemble their parents. The evidence for this effect seems stronger in relation to opposite-sex than same-sex parents, although the ultimate-level biological explanations put forward to explain these preferences do not seem to require that they need to be built on the appearance of the opposite-sex parent, rather than any other immediate family member. We set out to revisit this question, while assessing face preferences rather than partner choice. Face preferences might uncover more subtle effects than partner choice, as they can elucidate preferences in an unconstrained environment. We presented participants with faces manipulated to resemble their mother, father or self, but did not find that they selected these faces as more suitable for relationships than control faces. However, consistent with previous work, participants who reported less childhood rejection by their opposite-sex parent selected faces that resembled that parent significantly more frequently than control faces. Taken together with previous work, opposite-sex parental faces seem more important than same-sex parental faces in shaping partner preferences, and childhood relationships seem to modify potential attraction to parent-resembling faces. Despite some inconsistent findings, this effect has been detected across the different methodologies used to assess preferences.

Introduction

People select partners who resemble their parents, and in particular their opposite-sex parent. Independent judges perceive similarity between the face of a woman's husband and her father (Bereczkei et al., 2002, Bereczkei et al., 2004; see also Fraley & Marks, 2010; but see Marcinkowska and Rantala, 2012, Nojo et al., 2011, Nojo et al., 2012), and between the face of a man's wife and his mother (Bereczkei et al., 2002, Marcinkowska and Rantala, 2012; but see Nojo et al., 2011, Nojo et al., 2012). People with older parents have stronger preferences for faces that look older (Heffernan and Fraley, 2013, Perrett et al., 2002, Wilson and Barrett, 1987, Zei et al., 1981). The hair and eye colour, and ethnicity, of an individual's parents tend to be similar to that of their partner (Jedlicka, 1980, Jedlicka, 1984, Little et al., 2003, Saxton, 2016, Wilson and Barrett, 1987). Preferences for parent-similar features extend beyond faces, to body hair (Rantala, Pölkki, & Rantala, 2010) and to height (Seki, Ihara, & Aoki, 2012). These preferences appear to be acquired based on people's interactions with their parents; people who report better relationships with their parents tend to have stronger preferences for faces that resemble those parents (Wiszewska, Pawlowski, & Boothroyd, 2007; see also Kocsor et al., 2013, Saxton, 2016, Vukovic et al., 2015, Watkins et al., 2011), and these preferences are also reflected in their actual mate choice (Bereczkei et al., 2002, Bereczkei et al., 2004; but see Marcinkowska and Rantala, 2012, Nojo et al., 2012). This suggests an imprinting-like mechanism that influences mate-choice preferences in adulthood, and that consists of a predisposition to learn certain physical and behavioral cues of the individuals that one is exposed to during childhood and adolescence.

Despite the above findings, there remain two ambiguities in particular. First, the published research often examines the similarity between a participant's parents and the chosen partner (e.g. husband or girlfriend). However, the chosen partner represents the expression of preferences in a constrained environment; it includes influences from external factors such as the parents whom the partner might resemble, and it is biased towards relationships that enjoy at least a degree of long-term success instead of focussing on initial choice. Investigating people's preferences in an unconstrained environment might give further insight into the parent-similar phenomenon, and might elucidate some of the more subtle effects. The second ambiguity surrounds the roles of the same-sex and opposite-sex parent in contributing to partner preferences. Although people tend to choose partners whose facial coloration and ethnicity are similar in particular to that of their opposite-sex parent, some research studies have also found some evidence for similarity between an individual's partner and same-sex parent (Jedlicka, 1980, Jedlicka, 1984, Little et al., 2003, Saxton, 2016, Wilson and Barrett, 1987). Indeed, many of the ultimate-level biological explanations that have been put forward to explain parent-similar preferences should apply equally to the same-sex as the opposite-sex parent, or even to the self. If preferences for familial faces function to maintain co-adapted gene complexes (Read & Harvey, 1988; see Šterbová & Valentová, 2012) by promoting optimal outbreeding (Bateson, 1978, Bateson, 1980, Bateson, 1982, Helgason et al., 2008, Rantala and Marcinkowska, 2011), enhance one's own genetic representation in future generations (Thiessen, 1999), or support the selection of someone who resembles a successful reproducer (Todd & Miller, 1993), then all could arise from preferences for faces that resemble either parent, and all but the last could arise through preferences for faces that resemble the self.

Accordingly, first, the current study set out to test whether people prefer faces that presented undetected resemblances to their parents or themselves, in a forced-choice test using computer-generated images. Second, it set out to disentangle the effects of the same-sex and opposite-sex parent. In both instances, it also took into account the quality of people's relationship with their parents during childhood.

Section snippets

Participants

Digital photos were gathered from 96 target participants (54 women and 42 men, aged 17–37, all of White ethnicity) and their parents. About one third of the target participants were photographed under standard conditions by the authors. The rest of the target participants, and all of the parents, photographed themselves at home. They received a detailed set of instructions, and if the images were not of satisfactory quality, they were asked to take new ones. The participants and their parents

Preferences for self- and family-resemblance

Only responses to those face pairs were analysed which were in relation with the hypotheses being tested (i.e., parent- and self-resembling faces vs. controls, and the parent/parent pairs). The other pairs, introduced for methodological reasons (see Section 2.3), were omitted from the analysis. There was no evidence that individuals selected the self-resembling or parent-resembling faces as more attractive than the alternatives at rates greater than chance in the forced-choice face preference

Discussion

We set out to investigate participants' judgements of faces that had been manipulated to show consciously undetected resemblance to themselves, their mother, and their father. We also investigated whether participants' judgements might differ depending on their reports of their emotional closeness to their parents as they were growing up. Our analysis demonstrated preferences for faces that resembled the opposite-sex parent's face. However, this preference was observable only in light of the

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (grant number OTKA K112673).

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