父子(女)间面孔相似性的进化适应机制及其影响

由于受精和孕育过程发生在母亲体内, 人类受孕具有一定的隐蔽性, 同时人类早期社会存在着通奸行为, 因而, 父亲面临着父亲身份不确定性的风险。为了应对这种风险, 人类男性在生活中往往会寻求一些能表征父亲身份的线索, 其中亲子间面孔相似性被证明是辨别个体间是否存在基因关联(或血缘关系)的有效线索之一。morph软件合成、第三方评定以及当事人的主观评定是研究亲子间面孔相似性的三种基本范式。以往的研究表明当父子(女)间面孔相似性越高时, 父亲对子女的亲子投资水平越高, 父亲感知到的焦虑水平越低, 父亲的身体也越健康, 与此同时, 当父子(女)间面孔相似性越高时, 父亲对女儿会表现出更高的性厌恶水平。未来的研究可以进一步关注文化因素在该效应中的调节作用, 探寻新的研究范式以提高研究的内部效度和外部效度, 以及探讨影响亲子间面孔相似性感知的因素。

Father-child facial resemblance as a mechanism for evolutionary adaptation and its impacts

Due to the characteristics of internal fertilization, human fertilization, to a certain extent, is concealed. Meanwhile, adultery existed in early human society. Therefore, males suffer from the uncertainty that their putative children may not be their biological offspring, which is paternal uncertainty. To cope with this uncertainty, males are unconsciously looking for cues that might indicate a genetic similarity between them and their offspring. Among these cues, the facial resemblance is one of the indirect ways that males could infer if there is a biological connection in terms of fatherhood. Three methods are there to measure facial resemblance, including morph software synthesis, third-party rating, and self-rating. Previous studies have shown that the more similar the facial characteristics between a father and his offspring are, the more paternal resources the father would be willing to invest during parenthood. The less anxious and healthier a father is during parenthood, the higher sexual aversion a father would experience in the relationship with their children. The present research suggested three directions for future studies. First, it is valuable to look at the cultural differences in the impacts of father-child facial resemblance. Second, in order to enhance its internal and external validity, future work can adopt new methods to assess the father-child facial resemblance. Last, it would be an exciting direction to explore the relationship between the subjective assessments and the objective assessments of father-child facial resemblance.