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.

一项研究表明，帅爸的好相貌能遗传给女儿，但不见得会传给儿子。

科罗拉多大学的两位心理学教授大卫•佩雷特和伊丽莎白•康沃尔通过对一些家庭照片进行研究后发现，女孩的相貌一般会受到父母两人的影响，但男孩就不见得了，尤其是他们成年之后。

研究发现，帅爸爸也许能将他的阳刚特质传给儿子，但他英俊的相貌却遗传不了。

这一理论说明，帅爸靓妈能生出漂亮女儿但不一定能生出帅气儿子其实很正常。

很多女明星的女儿都很漂亮，比如戈蒂•霍恩的女儿凯特•哈德森，杰瑞•哈尔的女儿佐治亚，但男明星就不一定了。

罗德•斯图尔特和他的第一任妻子阿莱娜所生的儿子西恩•斯图尔特就不如他们的女儿——名模金伯丽相貌出众。

佩雷特说：“我们发现儿子的长相与父母之间没有很大联系。如果父母都是名模，那他们很可能会生个漂亮的女儿。”

佩雷特教授说，此前有研究认为，女性可以通过选择“性感”的配偶来提高男性后代的质量，因为帅爸能将自己的这种优良基因遗传给儿子。

但这项在最新一期《生物行为》期刊上发表的研究结果推翻了这一理论。

佩雷特说：“我们仔细观察女性的容貌，找到了可靠的证据证明她们的漂亮脸蛋遗传自父母。此外，我们发现男性脸部透出的阳刚气质的确符合“有其父必有其子”这一规则：有阳刚之气的父亲会生出具有相同气质的儿子。

“但我们并没有发现父亲的英俊脸庞遗传给儿子的任何证据。”