Posted on 06/24/2009 9:57:53 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Women More Likely Than Men to Reject Unattractive Babies
Wed Jun 24, 7:04 pm ET
WEDNESDAY, June 24 (HealthDay News) -- Women are more likely than men to look away from less-than-cute babies, according to a study that challenges the idea of a mother's unconditional love.
The findings might reflect an evolutionary-based need to provide limited resources only to healthy offspring, suggest the researchers, from Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass.
"Our study shows how beauty can affect parental attitudes," study senior author Dr. Igor Elman, director of the hospital's clinical psychopathology laboratory and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said in a news release from the hospital. "It shows women are more invested in raising healthy babies and that they are more prone to reject unattractive kids."
The study included 13 men and 14 women who were shown photos of 80 infants, including 50 normal ones and 30 with abnormal facial features, and asked to score them on attractiveness.
The men's attractiveness ratings for normal babies were much lower than those given by women, whereas women and men gave abnormal faces similar unattractive ratings. However, women made a greater effort to avoid looking at the unattractive faces.
The findings suggest that a woman's parental love may be "determined by facial attractiveness," study first author Rinah Yamamoto said in the news release. "Women may be more sensitized to aesthetic defects and may be more prone to reject unattractive kids. PLoS One.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
My mom tried to feed me to our cat. Luckily, we didn’t have a cat.
Dr Seruzawa's findings indicate that sociologists more often than not are full of shyt.
Then why are mothers always showing off pictures of hideously ugly babies and insisting that the baby is the cutest ever born?
Ever hear of the phrase “A face only a mother could love”?
Umm..luckily for you or for the cat?
People underestimate the strength of men’s paternal instincts.
Whenever I see an infant, even if not related to me, I feel a very strong “I will die to protect this child” reaction.
Men overlook the appearance and just see the underlying helpless child needing a protector warrior.
Women, OTOH...
This is true because I have never heard of a man ever aborting a baby for ANY reason. </sarc)
everyone likes beauty but real women take care of their offspring no matter how feral or even worse
Of course, the instinct to protect children does not exist in Democrats and RINOs.
The men just drink a few beers first...
Where’s the pictures?
Ugly babies get no respect. I was such an ugly baby, my mother used to feed me with a slingshot.
Ugly, uneven features are often the result of ill health.
Females are probably hardwired toward identifying and preferring healthy children as a survival mechanism.
My mom said that I was an ugly baby, and my oldest daughter was quite unattractive when she was born. She looked like a cross between a troll and my German grandmother (not a pretty woman) and her dad’s grandmother. I thought she was so ugly, that I almost didn’t give her the name I had picked out because it was too pretty for that baby. I felt horrible, as my son had been a pretty baby, but there it was.
She also had a mean little glare on her face. Luckily, she was very demanding and hungry, so I took care of the glaring troll around the clock. All of a sudden, around the time she started smiling, her pretty broke through. She is now a pretty girl but the pictures back up my claim. However, now that she is edging into puberty, the mean glare has returned.
My parents sent me out for a loaf of bread, and when I came back, they had moved!
Females are probably hardwired toward identifying and preferring healthy children as a survival mechanism.
This sounds like the reason some animal mothers abandon their newborns.
My inclination is to rate this study as low quality. The photos in question have no relationship to the women. So what if they didn’t stare at the pictures. What if they stared at the pictures forever because they were thinking, “He has to have a twin brother because one kid can’t be that ugly.” Women place more value on physical attractiveness than men. But if you want to start a fight with a woman, tell her that her child is ugly. Tell her that her close friend’s child is ugly, too. She will respond with power.
No respect, I tellya. When I was born, the doctor told my mother to stop breathing.
When I was born, the doctor smacked my mother.
Exactly. I was about to post the same comment: These weren't photos of the babies these women had, so the study doesn't measure whether or not a woman would reject her own baby.
The article doesn't specify what the "abnormal facial features" were. Maybe the women turned away to be polite, whereas the men were staring, not out of paternal feelings, but curiosity.
Babies with Down Syndrome have a 95% Abortion rate.
Do you not suppose that “Facial attractiveness” has something to do with this besides the fact that the kids are stupid?
Other articles on the study do mention the features-cleft palate, Downs syndrome etc
O mai! What great science!
I've observed that men and women are most likely to admire *their own* babies, probably because there's a tendency to find your own features appealing. As my oldest son said, "Why are our babies so much cuter than everyone else's babies?" "Because they look like YOU, Bill!"
Elaine: Some ugly baby, huh?
Ben: What did you say?
Elaine: I said, uh, some snuggly baby.
Larry, your response was breathtaking.
No offense meant to anyone who has one or was once one but I have never seen a baby yet that was cute..........They're just high maintenance, loud noisy poop machines.
I’m trying not to suppose anything. Down syndrome is hardly comparable to a homely baby.
I'm sure you didn't mean it to be funny but I found it hilarious. You're quite the storyteller.
/bookmarked just for your post
Thinking to myself: That kid has a serious case of the uglies. Yikes!
LOL! Did you try the Holy Water?
No, but maybe I should have.
Honestly, I haven’t ever seen a “pretty baby.” According to a friend, all infants look like Winston Churchill.
That said, my reaction to babies is similar to what someone else mentioned: aid and protect the mother and child.
Thanks for the info.
Terrible science: selection bias along with asking participants the wrong question and then, what, mind-reading to conclude the women would abandon the babies? Absurd conclusion based on a poorly thought out or intentionally biased experiment.
They must have needed a headline for additional funding.
Exactly. It’s amazing what passes for “science” sometimes.
I would like to know what they call “ugly”. Personally I do not think they are ugly until they grow up, drink beer, and snort meth, but then again.....I live in Red Neck Central, the ugly is part genetics and part lifestyle.
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