“He has his father’s nose, his grandfathers eyes and his mothers smile”

“He has his father’s nose, his grandfather’s eyes and his mother’s smile”.. We’ve all heard comments such as these when a new born baby comes along and family members are quick to mention perceived resemblances, but are there any truth to these comments in determining parenthood?

Before the introduction of highly accurate and sophisticated DNA tests, fathers were forced to rely upon resemblances between himself and the child as an indicator of fatherhood. This, of course, is filled with potential arguments and doubts.

When relying upon physical resemblance, fathers are reliant upon the faithfulness of the mother. Therefore, claimed resemblances between the father and child may determine how much a father invests in the child, as he is more likely to invest in a child who he believes himself to be genetically related to.

Mothers are almost always certain of motherhood and do not need to rely upon physical cues as grounds for parenthood. Instead they tend to use family resemblances to their own evolutionary advantage. For instance, they may use claimed similarities between father and child to reinforce paternal certainty, persuading the father of parenthood. This ensures parental investment for the child, increasing the child’s chance of survival and the mothers reproductive success. Unfortunately, this will have undesirable consequences for the father as he has been deceived into raising another mans child, reducing his own genes from the gene pool.

This issue has never been more alive than it is today, with the increased need for DNA paternity tests in society.

For more information please view our original article at http://dadcheckgold.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/HisFathersNose.pdf