
The facial feature that means you're more likely to have a son
You might think that having a boy or a girl is completely up to chance.
But expectant parents might be able to hazard a good guess – depending on what the father's facial features are like.
Researchers wanted to find out whether certain traits in parents were linked to the sex of their firstborn.
The team, from the University of Michigan, recruited 104 pairs of parents with at least one child.
Both were asked to submit facial photographs which were rated for attractiveness, dominance and masculinity or femininity by university students.
The results show that one certain characteristic was linked to an 83 per cent higher chance of having a son.
And it could explain why the likes of Tom Hardy, Russell Crowe and Jason Statham all had sons as their first child.
So, can you work out what it might be?
Their analysis, published in the journal Adaptive Human Behaviour and Physiology, revealed that fathers whose faces were rated as more dominant were more likely to have a firstborn son.
This result held no matter their level of attractiveness, masculinity or age.
They found that each increase in perceived dominance was linked to an 83 per cent greater chance of having a son.
However, there was no similar effect seen for mothers' facial dominance.
'In our sample of romantic couples, we found that fathers with more dominant-looking faces were more likely to have sons for a first-born child,' study author Benjamin Zubaly told PsyPost.
The team said one theory is that when women have higher testosterone levels around the time of conception – a factor linked to having male children – they may prefer dominant-looking males.
This preference, in turn, could influence the likelihood of having a son.
'These results suggest that fathers' facial dominance might influence the likelihood of a couple producing male offspring,' the team wrote.
As part of the study, university students were asked to rate how 'masculine' the faces of participants were (stock image)
'We propose a plausible mechanism through which maternal personality, hormones, and mate preferences influence the sex of offspring.
'Relationships between facial cues of dominance and offspring sex warrant further investigation.'
The findings could go some way towards explaining why particular celebrities – who arguably have more 'dominant' faces – have sons as their firstborn child.
Tom Hardy's eldest child is his son Louis, Russell Crowe's eldest is his son Charles, and Jason Statham's eldest is his son Jack.
Meanwhile perhaps less 'dominant-faced' celebrities, including Zayn Malik and Keith Urban, have firstborn daughters.
1 - Popularity
Men appear more attractive if they're popular with other women, according to scientists.
The theory is that women are especially attracted to men with partners because they are more likely to be kind and faithful - which makes them 'good mates'.
2 - Money
Women are more likely to find men attractive if they think they have a bulging wallet, a new study has found - but for men it's still all about the looks.
A recent study suggests that women are four times as sensitive to salary when considering a male partner as men are when choosing a female partner.
3 - Muscles
When it comes to what women want, muscular, tall men still win out, a recent Austrlian study suggests.
Scientists showed a group of 160 women photographs of shirtless, faceless men and asked to give them an attractiveness rating.
The results show men who looked strong, with muscular arms and toned torsos, did far better than those who had worked a little less hard at the gym.
4 - Intelligence
It seems that, for some, looks and personality really don't matter.
Nearly one in ten people find intelligence to be the most attractive feature in a partner - a trait known as sapiosexuality, according to researchers at the University of Western Australia.
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