Scientists believe they have found a way to determine if dads-to-be will have a boy or girl first time around and the exact characteristic might prove surprising
Expectant couples love to speculate whether they’ll have a girl or a boy and new research suggests the answer might be written all over the fathers’ faces. Scientists trying to work out of certain traits in mums and dads were linked to the sex of their firstborn think they’ve come up with an answer.
According to PsyPost, the team from the University of Michigan spoke to 104 pairs of heterosexual parents with at least one child, asking them to supply photographs of their face which they asked students to rate for attractiveness, dominance, masculinity and femininity. And the results identified one key trait that they linked to an 83 per cent higher chance of having a son.
Celebrity dads who have had sons first time around who could be said to have this subjective trait include former England footballer David Beckham, who has four children with the oldest son Brooklyn and Oscar winner Russell Crowe, dad to sons Charles and Tennyson. Actor Tom Hardy, whose first born is a son called Louis, is another example.
The characteristic? Dominance in male faces. “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,” said study author Benjamin Zubaly.
“It is possible that this means when women are higher in testosterone and more likely to have a son they tend to choose more dominant males. However, further research is necessary to understand what processes underline our findings.”
The study used three tools to assess psychological dominance – a checklist of traits, a scale measuring control in social situations and the men’s physical features. Facial dominance in mothers did not seem to affect the sex of their firstborn child.
Celebrity fathers with girls first time around include The Notebook star Ryan Gosling, who has two daughters with actress Eva Mendes and former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, dad to daughter Khai with his ex, model Gigi Hadid.
There are of course many other suggested ways to find out if you’re having a boy or girl, with one theory reported to be 92 per cent accurate. Subtle differences in the size and shape of a baby’s skull on an ultrasound picture could indicate the sex, with boys tending to have larger, blockier skulls while those of girls are rounder and smaller.
Other less proven theories, often called old wives’ tales, include experiencing a bad case of cold feet meaning a boy, while sweet food cravings could indicate a girl is on the way. Another popular theory is the position of the bump – high for a girl, low for a boy.