How parents meddle in their children's love lives. 21 April 2015

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 Rob 2 Comments

Meet the parents! Two new experiments show how choosing a partner can send shockwaves across the generations. We’ll find out how parents meddle in their children’s love lives, and how sexy sons lead to handsome fathers.


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Sexy Sons Make Fathers Seem Sexier
How Parents Meddle in Their Kids’ Love Lives


Robert De Niro kept a close eye on Ben Stiller in the Focker movie franchise. But how successful are meddling parents at interfering in their children's love lives?

The articles covered in the show:

Apostelou, M., Kasapi, K., & Arakliti, A. (2015). Will they do as we wish? An investigation of the effectiveness of parental manipulation of mating behavior. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 1(1), 28-36. Read summary

Prokop, P. (in press). The putative son’s attractiveness alters the perceived attractiveness of the putative father. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Read summary

2 comments:

  1. Is there any other species in which parents have some control over the mating of their young or is it unique to humans?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not sure, actually. I'm not much of an expert on other animals. I think meerkats have only one breeding female in a group, so I suppose they must restrict their kids from mating.

    ReplyDelete

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