Fathers’ eye colour sways daughters’ choice of both long- and short-term partners

Abstract

In several species, mate choice is influenced by parental features through sexual imprinting, but in humans evidence is scarce and open to alternative explanations. We examined whether daughters’ preference for mates with light vs dark eyes is affected by the eye colour of parents. In an online study, over one thousand women rated the attractiveness of men as potential partners for either a long- or a short-term relationship. Each male face was shown twice, with light (blue or green) and with dark (brown or dark brown) eyes. Having a light-eyed father increased the preference for light-eyed men in both relationship contexts. Having light eyes increased this preference too, but only when men were regarded as potential long-term companions. Asymmetrically, in real life, father’s eye colour was the only predictor of partner’s eye colour; own colour was irrelevant. Mother’s eye colour never mattered, affecting neither preferences nor real-life choices. The effect of paternal eye colour was modulated by the quality of the relationship between father and daughter, suggesting (flexible) sexual imprinting rather than a simple inheritance of maternal preferences. Our data provide evidence that in humans, as in birds and sheep, visual experience of parental features shapes later sexual preferences.

In humans, only attractive females fulfil their sexually imprinted preferences for eye colour

“…Replacing maternal with paternal eye colour showed that the light eyes of fathers played no significant role in affecting men's preferences-either on their own or in any interactions, all Fs < 1. These results mirror those found in women: light-eyed male faces looked more attractive to women whose father had light eyes, in both a short-and a long-term context 39 . This symmetry between the sexes also turned up in two separate multiple regressions on men and women's overall preference for light eyes-with own, maternal, and paternal eye colour (light, dark) as independent variables.…”

“…Photographs were digitally modified in PortraitPro, creating four versions of each face which differed only in eye colour. As in 39 , these were always shown in pairs ( Fig. 1): blue/dark brown (with blue on the left) and brown/ green (with green on the right).…”

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ In women, the impact of paternal light eyes depended on how much daughters had felt rejected by their father during childhood, with no significant effect found in participants in the highest tertile of paternal rejection 39 . Here the very same analysis was run on men; this was identical to the repeated-measures ANOVA described above except that it was carried out only on the men in the bottom and top tertiles of maternal rejection, so as to include an additional between-subjects factor of maternal rejection (low, high).…”

“…This was true both across two eye-colour categories (light, dark: X 2 (1) = 0.010, p = 0.919) and all four of them (blue, green, brown, dark brown: X 2 (9) = 12.301, p = 0.197, N = 526). This came as something of a surprise, given that, in women, fathers and partners did feature the same eye colour significantly more often than expected 39 .…”

“…Data analysis. All data coding and selection choices were identical to those made by Bressan and Damian 39 .…”