Dr Lynda Boothroyd, a lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Durham has led research being carried out into women’s attraction to their father’s facial features. The research found that women that had a positive relationship with their father were more attracted to the faces of men that have similar facial dimensions especially in the central region of the face. The researchers were looking for evidence of parental sexual imprinting which is a sexual preference for individuals that have some of the characteristics of one's parent. They carried out the research by showing a group of women photographs of men's faces and asking them to rate their attractiveness. The faces were measured using calipers and then compared to the women's fathers. In addition to this the women were also asked to rate their relationships with their fathers, for example how much time he spent with them and how emotionally involved he was in their upbringing. The research also showed that we learn what is good in a face partly from the faces of men to whom we have a strong positive relationship. Further research into this area may show whether it just applies to fathers or whether it may also apply to an elder sibling.

‘How Men Pick Women’ is a whole other kettle of fish and something that is better left to the experts to explain.