In the first study of its kind, men said that their self image improved after the birth in what is being called a 'hidden benefit' of becoming a dad.

 

The scientists said that men could get the boost because they feel they are more masculine（男性的） having just seen a mini version of themselves enter the world.

 

They could also get a kick out of（因某事感到愉快） women cooing over them as they walk around with their baby.

 

Women by contrast did not experience such a lift about their appearance - possibly because the physical demands of raising a child left them a shadow of what they used to be.

 

The study examined 182 people who were all newlywed adults with an average age of 24 for a woman and 26 for a man.

 

They asked them to give their verdict on their own wellbeing and appearance at the start of the study, the one year anniversary and the second anniversary.

 

One question asked them to rate how attractive they found themselves on a scale of one to 10 and how ordinary they thought they were on a scale of one to five. 

 

For men who didn't have children, notions of attractiveness remained stable.

 

But those who became fathers during the study's timeframe felt more attractive after their child was born than they did previously².

 

Lead researcher Alicia Cast, an associate professor the University of California-Santa Barbara, said: 'I was talking about this paper with my husband and he commented on the attention he got when he was seen in public holding our son after he was born. Like: "Aren't you a good dad", "Look at that new dad with his baby".

 

'Women get that feedback, too, because everybody loves a new baby. But that (benefit) may be countered by other things she's experiencing that he's not, in terms of how her body has changed and being more physically³ tired.

 

'There's a lot of attention paid to how women think about themselves – particularly their bodies and their physical attractiveness – after childbirth.

 

'But to our knowledge there's been nothing that looked at men'.

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