People hardly ever realize that their belief in their high rate of success in detecting family resemblances is affected by their knowledge of the actual genetic link between individuals. In the three studies reported here, 100 men and 100 women were requested to estimate the facial resemblance of photographically portrayed child-adult pairs, while being given either truthful or deceitful information, or no information, about their relatedness. Believing that the members of a pair were parent and offspring was the main predictor of the perceived similarity between them. Men and women agreed in judging children as more similar to female than to male adults, except when the pair members were believed to be related; in this case, men judged the child as resembling the alleged parents equally. Common remarks on family resemblance thus appear to ensue less from a conscious desire to please or reassure the parents than from general hypothesis-testing biases in human reasoning, made perhaps more specific in men by a concern with the problem of uncertain paternity.

Talis pater, talis filius: perceived resemblance and the belief in genetic relatedness

BRESSAN, PAOLA;DAL MARTELLO, MARIA
2002

Abstract

People hardly ever realize that their belief in their high rate of success in detecting family resemblances is affected by their knowledge of the actual genetic link between individuals. In the three studies reported here, 100 men and 100 women were requested to estimate the facial resemblance of photographically portrayed child-adult pairs, while being given either truthful or deceitful information, or no information, about their relatedness. Believing that the members of a pair were parent and offspring was the main predictor of the perceived similarity between them. Men and women agreed in judging children as more similar to female than to male adults, except when the pair members were believed to be related; in this case, men judged the child as resembling the alleged parents equally. Common remarks on family resemblance thus appear to ensue less from a conscious desire to please or reassure the parents than from general hypothesis-testing biases in human reasoning, made perhaps more specific in men by a concern with the problem of uncertain paternity.
2002
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11577/2430009
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 12
  • Scopus 69
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 58
social impact