Women spot ideal fathers at a glance

by JULIE WHELDON, Daily Mail

Last updated at 16:01 10 May 2006


Women can work out whether a man will make a good father just by looking at his face, research shows.

Simply studying a photograph can give them subconscious clues that he likes children - and would therefore be a good long-term partner.

Scientists behind the discovery believe it adds an important dimension to knowledge about mate selection among humans.

Experts say women judge a man on his genetic quality and also his willingness to be a good parent for her offspring.

Studies have shown they use masculine features as a guide to genetic quality. When at their most fertile, they are particularly attracted to men with features such as strong jaws.

However at other times of the month, women prefer more feminine faces as softer features suggest a man will be a good long-term partner and help care for any offspring.

Researchers at St Andrews University have even come up with the face of the perfect man, whose softer feminised features reflected a more nurturing side.

By studying what appealed to women, they concluded that the ideal partner should have a symmetrical face, large deep and expressive eyes, with a straight nose and soft jaw.

This suggests that when it comes to father material, most women would chose Jude Law over the more rugged Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Law has three children - sons Rafferty and Rudy, plus daughter Iris - by ex-wife Sadie Frost.

When they married in 1997, he also took on the role of stepfather to her son Finlay from her previous marriage to musician Gary Kemp.

The latest study set out to see how accurate women were at reading men's faces for the different clues to testosterone levels and interest in children.

The team from the University of Southern California took 39 young men aged 18 to 33 years and tested their hormone levels.

They were also given a test in which they saw pairs of adult and infant faces and had to say which they found most appealing.

This was designed to show whether they had a natural liking for children. A group of 29 women aged around 18 were then shown 'A perfect partner' digital photographs of each of the men and asked to rate them.

They were told to say whether or not they thought the men liked children, was masculine, physically attractive or kind.

They also rated them on how attractive they would be as a short-term partner and as a long-term mate.

In addition, five women judged how happy or angry each man appeared in each photograph.

The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences showed women were able to successfully spot which men liked babies.

Those that women considered would be good with older children also scored highly on the baby affinity test.

From looking at the photographs they could also pick out which men had the highest testosterone levels, as they tended to rate them as more masculine than others.

As expected, they found the masculine faces more attractive as short-term mates.

Intriguingly, although all men were asked to make a neutral expression for their photographs, women thought those who liked children looked happier than those who did not seem interested.

Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist from Northumbria University, said: "It seems that women can tell an awful lot from a man's face.

"They can tell whether he likes children and his testosterone levels, and it may be that this involves two different signals. The paper is a step forward in our understanding, but it does not go all the way to answering the questions about just what makes someone a good parent or perfect partner."