In news we didn't want or need
Words by Jadie Troy-Pryde
You may have read the title of this article and decided to read on because a) you were outraged and needed to find out if it was a joke b) were mildly curious as to why this was a thing or c) misread brothers and thought it said Tom Hardy.
However, according to science it is definitely brothers (sorry, Tom). Yes, the boys who you grew up alongside. The ones who promised they'd give you a pound if you licked a battery, but always failed to provide the monetary kind and left you with a sore arm after they thumped you with the violent kind.
Forget about fancying bald men because they're supposedly more successful, or that reading this book makes guys more attractive - according to a new study, women are more likely to choose a romantic partner that bears resemblance to their brother.
Volunteers sent in photographs of their brother and boyfriend for the study, and researchers also used pictures of celebrities and their brothers and significant others.
The participants were then showed an image of a woman's brother along with photos of four other men, three of whom were random people, one who was the woman's partner. The participants were asked to choose the man that looked most like the woman's brother, and the results found 'clear evidence for perceptual similarity in facial photographs of a woman's partner and her brother.'
The survey found that many participants paired the brother and partner, showing that some women do select romantic partners that look similar to their siblings.
But why?
Dr Tamsin Saxton, lead researcher of the study suggests it has something to do with familiarity - we often choose partners who have similar views or interests, so when it comes to physical attributes we could be subconsciously doing the same.
'(Our findings) were not a rule or true of every woman but we do find that, at levels greater than chance, partners did show some subtle resemblance to the women's brothers,' she told The Independent.
So there you go. Apologies if you can never look at your S.O. in the same way ever again.
