Attractive fathers do not pass their looks on to their sons but they will hand their good looks down to their daughters, research shows.

In a study of family photographs, psychologists Professor David Perrett and Elisabeth Cornwell - now at the University of Colorado have found that while both father and mother can influence the attractiveness of their daughters, the couple's good looks do not necessarily contribute to the attractiveness of their son as an adult.

Handsome men with masculine looks are likely to pass on masculine features, but not facial attractiveness.

The theory suggests it is not unusual for attractive parents to produce a beautiful daughter while failing to pass on the same good looks to a son.

While many celebrity mothers produce stunning daughters - such as Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate Hudson or Jerry Hall and her daughter Georgia - the same is not necessarily true of celebrity fathers.

Sean Stewart, the son of Rod Stewart and his first wife Alana, would probably be judged less attractive than his model sister Kimberly.

"We can't see a strong relationship between the parents' attractiveness and the sons. If the parents are supermodels, the chances are the daughters will be lookers," Perrett said.

Prof Perrett said it has previously been suggested that a woman could increase her own reproductive success by choosing a "sexy" mate whose genes would be passed on to male offspring, making them irresistible to the next generation.

But the new study, published in the current edition of the journal Animal Behaviour, contradicts the theory.

He said: " When we looked at women's faces, we found clear evidence that attractiveness passed from both father and mother to daughter. For the male line, we find that facial masculinity conforms to the rule 'like father - like son'. Masculine dads have masculine sons.

"But we did not find any evidence that facial attractiveness is passed from father to son.

一項研究表明，帥爸的好相貌能遺傳給女兒，但不見得會傳給兒子。

科羅拉多大學的兩位心理學教授大衛•佩雷特和伊麗莎白•康沃爾通過對一些家庭照片進行研究后發現，女孩的相貌一般會受到父母兩人的影響，但男孩就不見得了，尤其是他們成年之后。

研究發現，帥爸爸也許能將他的陽剛特質傳給兒子，但他英俊的相貌卻遺傳不了。

這一理論說明，帥爸靚媽能生出漂亮女兒但不一定能生出帥氣兒子其實很正常。

很多女明星的女兒都很漂亮，比如戈蒂•霍恩的女兒凱特•哈德森，杰瑞•哈爾的女兒佐治亞，但男明星就不一定了。

羅德•斯圖爾特和他的第一任妻子阿萊娜所生的兒子西恩•斯圖爾特就不如他們的女兒——名模金伯麗相貌出眾。

佩雷特說：“我們發現兒子的長相與父母之間沒有很大聯系。如果父母都是名模，那他們很可能會生個漂亮的女兒。”

佩雷特教授說，此前有研究認為，女性可以通過選擇“性感”的配偶來提高男性后代的質量，因為帥爸能將自己的這種優良基因遺傳給兒子。

但這項在最新一期《生物行為》期刊上發表的研究結果推翻了這一理論。

佩雷特說：“我們仔細觀察女性的容貌，找到了可靠的證據證明她們的漂亮臉蛋遺傳自父母。此外，我們發現男性臉部透出的陽剛氣質的確符合“有其父必有其子”這一規則：有陽剛之氣的父親會生出具有相同氣質的兒子。

“但我們并沒有發現父親的英俊臉龐遺傳給兒子的任何證據。”