Terrortheplug
Ascending to Ezra light
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We all know looks are partly genetic, but the reality is messier than just “hot parents = hot kids.” Sometimes it holds true, sometimes not. I went through research, twin studies, and evolutionary theory to break it down.
1. Attractiveness Is Heritable
- Twin and family studies consistently show moderate-to-high heritability for facial shape, bone structure, and attractiveness ratings (heritability estimates around 40–70%).
- Specific traits like symmetry, averageness, facial width-to-height ratio, and sexual dimorphism all show genetic influence.
- Heritability doesn’t mean determinism — environment (diet, hormones, childhood illness, etc.) still plays a big role.
2. What the Studies Actually Show
- Parents’ attractiveness correlates with children’s attractiveness — but not perfectly. Attractive parents increase probability, not guarantee.
- One study (Cornwell & Perrett, 2008) found both parents’ looks predicted daughters’ attractiveness strongly, but less so for sons. This doesn’t mean sons of attractive parents are doomed — just that the link is weaker.
- Large GWAS and twin studies show sex-specific genetic effects on faces. In other words, the same genes can make daughters look better but don’t always “work” the same way for sons.
3. Why Kids Don’t Always Match Their Parents’ Looks
- Genetic recombination. You don’t inherit your parents’ faces directly — you inherit half their DNA shuffled randomly. Two good-looking parents can still pass mismatched features.
- Assortative mating. Attractive people tend to pair with other attractive people, which stacks the deck for kids. But if one parent is much less attractive, the child’s outcome can swing either way.
- Sex differences in attractiveness traits. Female attractiveness is tied more to skin quality, neotenous features, and symmetry. Male attractiveness leans more on masculinity, jaw growth, height, and build — traits influenced more by hormones and environment.
- Random developmental noise. Things like health problems, accidents, nutrition, and even posture can affect how attractive someone grows up, regardless of genetics.
4. The Daughters vs. Sons Effect (Quick Note)
- Some evidence suggests attractive parents are more likely to produce attractive daughters than attractive sons.
- Reason: female facial attractiveness is more directly under sexual selection, and sex-specific gene expression can make daughters benefit more from their parents’ “good genes.”
- This doesn’t mean sons of attractive parents are ugly — just that the correlation is weaker and less consistent in the data.
5. Real-Life Observations
- You can see examples among celebrities: sometimes attractive actors/models have kids who also look great, other times the kids look average.
- It’s not just “genetics” — lifestyle, grooming, orthodontics, and surgery play a role too.
6. Takeaways
- Attractive parents increase the odds of attractive kids, but it’s a roll of the dice.
- Daughters may inherit “pretty” more reliably than sons, but the effect isn’t huge.
- Environment, development, and chance still play a massive role.
