Is Attractiveness Hereditary?
Like father, like son—sexy fathers can give rise to sexy sons in the insect world. Researchers suggest these findings might also apply to humans. Males often give showy displays to attract females in the animal kingdom—from cricket songs to peacock plumes. Scientists had long assumed that attractive males can father attractive sons, but hard evidence supporting this idea is actually scant. To see if attractiveness can be hereditary, researchers in England focused on the fruit fly Drosophila simulans. Males of the species cannot force sex, meaning any mating that happens is because of male charisma. First, the scientists paired male and female flies at random. They found the length of time it took for them to have sex ranged from two minutes to two hours. The speed at which mating occurred suggests how attractive the males were. After each male mated with roughly three females, their sons were paired with single females, and the amount of time it took them to score was noted. The invest
