Let’s all get up and dance to a song that was a hit of yore: “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” was a 1938-recorded ditty that was traditionally sung by a man to butter up a lady friend, (and obviously has been used in countless diaper commercials ever since).
Fast forward to 2011: Ye olde observation may not be much of a compliment after all.A study published in the December 2011 issue of Infant Behavior and Development compares the relationship between facial attractiveness in infants (age 24 months and under) and the same individuals as young adults (age 16–18 years) using infant photos and adult photographs from high school yearbooks for 355 participants.Somewhat surprisingly, participants found that a pretty baby did not necessarily a grownup supermodel make.
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So if beautiful babies don’t necessarily grow up to be attractive adults, is it not a stretch to think that ugly babies still have a fighting chance to be drop-dead gorgeous later in life?
That’s right, according to co-author Marissa A. Harrison, Ph.D from Penn State Harrisburg: “[In the study] Beautiful baby did not equal beautiful adult, and likewise, unattractive baby did not equal unattractive adult,” she explains. “It seems there is just no way to tell in infancy. We’re thinking you have to wait to see what puberty brings you in terms of hormones and skeletal growth.”If there was any doubt as to the validity of this hypothesis, after we came across baby pictures of Jennifer Aniston, we’re pretty sure these psychologists may be onto something.
