Plain parents less likely to have girls - study

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Good-looking couples are more likely to have daughters than plainer parents, according to a study.

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, also argues that beauty is a better predictor of reproductive success for women than men.

The findings are based on data from a survey of 17,000 babies born in Britain in March 1958.

The children were rated aged 7 as attractive or unattractive by their teachers, and at 45, when they were asked to record the age and sex of their children.

Mr Kanazawa found that while the children who were rated as attractive - 84 per cent of the sample - were equally likely to have a son or a daughter as their first child, the unattractive children were more likely to have sons.

The author of Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature said the average "unattractive" child had a 56 per cent probability of becoming the parent of a boy.

Kanazawa believes that the trend could be driven by the relative value of attractiveness in men and women.

Men tend to rate attractiveness as important in long-term relationships and casual affairs. Women tend to rate it highly only for short-term relationships. Wealth and status were more important in the long term.

- staff reporter