Why We Spot Resemblances that Don't Exist

You and Junior may share big blue eyes and the exact same nose, but
don't interpret strangers' exclamations as evidence of this breathtaking
resemblance. They're just as likely to coo over you and the neighbor's
kid. The slightest hint that an adult and child are related doubles
instances of perceived resemblance, according to Paola Bressan, Ph.D., a
psychologist at the University of Padua in Italy.

Bressan showed photographs of a male-female couple and a
child -- some related, some not -- to 60 subjects. When asked to match
parents with children and given no information about blood ties, subjects
rarely identified matches. In fact, they were no more successful than if
they randomly guessed. When told there was no relationship, just
one-third of the subjects saw similarities between adult(s) and child.
But when subjects were falsely informed that the pictured individuals
were a family, perceived resemblance jumped 45 percent.

The possibility that people were simply being polite can be ruled
out, according to Bressan. Subjects had never met the families depicted;
they were simply looking at photographs.

Bressan's study, scheduled published in the journal Psychological
Science, concludes that we are hardwired to seek aesthetic similarities.
People know that parents and children share genetic material and so infer
that they must resemble one another, explains Bressan.

Perceived resemblance may also be rooted in the age-old issue of
paternity. Evolution has taught parents, especially fathers, to deceive
themselves in order to propagate the human race.

"In a society where adultery is common, babies with a readily
identifiable biological father have more chance of surviving than babies
who do not," Bressan says.

Interestingly, men were more likely than women to spot similarities
when told that adults and children were related. And they ascribed more
similarities to men and boys than to any other gender combination.

"In our society, men's preoccupation with paternity might be
strongest where a male heir is concerned," speculates Bressan.