Definition
The tendency for mothers and maternal relatives of infants to remark that a child looks like the father more often than commenting on resemblance to the mother.
Introduction
Paternity uncertainty is an adaptive challenge for males, but not for females (Buss 1996). Due to the risk of cuckoldry, a man is less likely to invest in his partner’s child if he is less confident that the child is his own (Pagel 1997; Gaulin and Schlegel 1980). Children living with a step-father or adopted father are more likely to be abused or neglected than those who live in a home with their biological fathers (Daly and Wilson 1996). Similarly, women are at greater risk of being abused if some children in the home are not related to their male partners (Burch and Gallup 2000). Because of the potential risk to the health and safety of both women and children in the case of a father doubting his paternity, women may have an...
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References
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Watson, L. (2018). Promoting Paternity (You Look Like Your Father Phenomenon). In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2271-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2271-1
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