Attractive couples hand their good looks down to their daughters, but have little impact on whether their sons are handsome, according to a new study.

University of St Andrews boffins have found that while both parents influence the attractiveness of their daughters, male attractiveness is not inherited.

In a study of family photographs, psychologists Professor David Perrett and Elisabeth Cornwell – now at the University of Colorado – found that while both father and mother can influence the attractiveness of their daughters, the couple's good looks do not necessarily contribute to the attractiveness of their son as an adult.

"We can't see a strong relationship between the parents' attractiveness and the sons. If the parents are supermodels, the chances are the daughters will be lookers,” the Scotsman quoted Perrett, as saying.

The researchers studied the family photo albums of students, collecting images of over 100 females and 100 males and their respective biological parents taken over several years.

The photos of each student, father and mother were rated separately for attractiveness, and for femininity/masculinity.

They found evidence that attractiveness passed from both father and mother to daughter, and also that attractive fathers were more likely to produce attractive, feminine daughters, whether the mother was attractive or not.

"When we looked at women's faces, we found clear evidence that attractiveness passed from both father and mother to daughter," said the professor.

"We are perplexed as to why we did not find any evidence for the inheritance of attractiveness in males, through either the female or male parent,” the expert added.

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