Who’s Your Daddy?

My son and his dad are like a pair of salt and pepper shakers. One is dark, one is light, but they have the same general shape and features. Or, that could be my subconscious speaking. According to an article in the Guardian, researchers at the University of Montpelier have found that babies look like their fathers less often than mothers insist:

• So deep-rooted in the male psyche is the fear that the baby might be someone else’s, the article states, that women subconsciously do their best to offer reassurance.
  
  Scientists delved into the delicate issue of mistaken paternity by studying 69 families with 83 children. After assigning the children to groups depending on their age and gender, they asked the parents to rate how much their children looked like themselves and their partner. They then asked independent judges to give their opinion on which parent the children most resembled.

  In every case, mothers claimed their newborn babies resembled their male partner. The men in the relationship were less certain, with only 83% believing the child looked like them. The judges were even less convinced, stating around 40% of the time that a newborn baby looked like the proposed father.

I have problems with some of the language used in the article. In particular “mistaken paternity” and “proposed father.” Insisting that a child looks like his or her father isn’t a case of mothers not really seeing their children, of having to something to hide about paternity or of being mistaken about who the father is. There are obviously deep-seeded, ancient, needs for infant and recovering mothers to be protected. The father, may not feel like he’s looking in a mirror when he sees a red, wrinkled newborn. He might need the help to see the resemblance and signal the paternal instinct to start functioning.