It is a much favoured pastime for parents, spotting the parental likenesses in their new arrival. But there may be more to mummy's assessment than meets the eye (or the nose, mouth or dimpled chin).
A new mother, research suggests, is most likely to find paternal similarities in her baby, even when there aren't any babies who look like their dads.
Her motives, according to the experts, are self-serving and built firmly into her evolutionary psyche. Seemingly innocent comments such as 'He's got his father's eyes' or 'She's got her daddy's hair' are infact a concerted, if subconcious, effort by a mother to convince their partner that he really is the father.
Scientists who conducted the research beleive the female strategy has evolved over time to allay male anxiety about paternity. If a father is reassured that the child looks just like him, it makes him fatherly and more prepared to look after both infant and mother, they conclude.
There are many high profile instances in which such devious tactics would not apear to be necessary, of course. Mick Jagger insisted on a DNA test to prove his son Lucas by model Luciana Morad, despite facial traits which have since developed into a quite dramatic likeness.
Although Jagger disputed paternity until it was proved he was the father, he is now close to his son and contributes to his upkeep.
Boris Becker, who also disputed parenthood following a fleeting affair - in his case a fumble in a restaurant room cupboard - need hardly have bothered with the DNA test, as the unmistakeable features of red-haired Anna, now six, began to emerge.
-- Daily Mail --