根据一项最新的科学研究结果显示，男人倾向于选择跟母亲长得像的人作为伴侣，而女人则多半会对长得像自己父亲的人一见倾心。男人选择的伴侣大多和自己的母亲长相相似，不论是嘴唇的厚度、嘴巴的宽度、下巴的宽度及长度都差不多。女人在选择伴侣时，比较在意的是嘴巴到眉毛的距离、脸的长度、两眼间的距离和鼻子的大小等细节特征。

Men tend to wind up with life partners who look like their mother, while a woman is lured¹ to a partner who looks like her father, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Heterosexuals are deeply attracted to individuals whose faces are similar to that of their opposite-sex parent, they said, suggesting that this characteristic is rooted in an evolutionary² drive.

A team led by Tamas Bereczkei at the University of Pecs in Hungary created a model of facial ratios -- width of jaw³, distance between mouth and brow and so on -- comprising 14 facial zones.

They measured 312 Hungarian adults from 52 different families using this method. Each family included a couple, along with two sets of parents.

The researchers found a significant correlation⁴ in facial similarities between a woman's mate and her father, and also between a man's partner and his mother.

The team tested the model on faces that were randomly⁵ selected from the general population and repeated the experiment with a panel of judges, who also picked out the same pairings from randomly selected groups of photos.

Interestingly, men and women focused on different parts of the face when they home in on a potential mate, they found.

A man's lover and his mother tended to have similar fullness in the lips, width of mouth, as well as length and width of jaw.

But for women, the critical features were the distance between mouth and brow, the height of the face, distance between the eyes and the size of a man's nose.

The choices are driven less by psychology⁶ and socialisation and more by evolutionary pressures, suggests Bereczkei.

Too much genetic⁷ overlap⁸ -- as can happen with incest -- is an evolutionary no-no.

But seeking similar genetic traits "may confer individuals with additional adaptive advantages," he wrote.

It could increase the degree to which parents share genes⁹ with offspring, enhancing the genetic representation of future generations.

Finding similar partners might also help perpetuate¹⁰ genetic complexes that have evolved to adapt to a particular environment.

There may be an additional bonus, which probably has more to do with happiness than a genetic imperative¹¹.

"Human couples who are similar in physical and psychological characteristics are more likely to remain together than dissimilar partners, possibly leading to an increase in fertility," the study concludes.

The research appears in the journal Proceedings¹² of the Royal Society B. The Royal Society is Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.