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With a mouthful of metal and not quite the style and glamour of her older sister, Jan Brady was convinced everyone liked Marsha more — and a recent study shows Jan might have been right.
Professor Andrew Harrell at the University of Alberta in Canada will release a study at the end of the week that suggests parents treat their more attractive children better than their less attractive children.
In a presentation at the 16th annual Warren E. Kalback Population Conference, Harrell said his research concludes that parents favor more attractive children because of an evolutionary bias.
Information Harrell sent The Daily Reveille via e-mail says past studies have shown that children who are more attractive have genes that are more likely to survive, and unconsciously parents favor the child with the better genes.
Harrell and a team of researchers followed parents in grocery stores for 10 minutes and observed how they acted toward their children.
Researchers observed whether parents buckled their children into the cart, how often they permitted dangerous activities such as standing in the basket and how far they let their children wander away in the store.
While observing the parents, researchers also ranked the children’s appearance on a scale from one to ten. Four observers averaged their ranks of the children’s appearance to reach an average score.
The children ranged in ages from one to five.
Researchers found that 13.3 percent of the most attractive children were buckled while only 1.2 percent of children categorized as the least attractive were buckled.
Researchers concluded that fathers were more likely to favor attractive children when buckling them into the basket.
Seventy-five percent of adults allowed their children to wander 10 feet away at least once in a shopping trip, and most let them wander away more than 10 feet at least three times during a shopping trip according to the study.
The study found mothers are more likely to allow 10 or more feet of distance between themselves and an unattractive boy or an attractive girl. But that mothers and fathers most closely guarded attractive boys in the grocery store.
The idea of parents playing favorites based on the appearance of their children rang true for some students.
Valerie MacNeill, a philosophy junior, who is a middle child, said her dad favors her older sister and her mom favors her younger sister.
“I was the smart one of the family, and my sisters were the pretty ones,” she said. “I didn’t realize it until I was 16, and then it really bothered me. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”
Paul Harang, a political science sophomore, said he never thought his parents had favorites, but his sister got more attention.
“My little sister is very good-looking, and she gets a lot of attention,” Harang said.
Not all students think their parents considered appearances in their family.
Nicole Zaleski, a psychology and women’s and gender studies junior, said she was closer to her mom and her two younger brothers were closer to her dad.
“I don’t think [appearance] would be the reason, not in my family,” Zaleski said.
Ikechukwu Igbo, a kinesiology junior, said that while his parents had favorites, it was not because of appearances.
“It was based on our accomplishments and academic intelligence,” Igbo said. “I don’t think they did it intentionally.”
Michele Cook, an accounting freshmen, said she did not think her parents had a favorite between her and her sister.
“We were really competitive, but our parents were pretty equal,” Cook said.