Hey guys. Do you want to feel more attractive? Sure we all do. Well listen up to celebrate
Father's Day this year why don't you become a dad and see what a difference that having
a baby can make to how you see your face in the mirror? #extremefathersday.
So guys if you've ever suspected that dads are more attractive than you are, well it's
not necessarily true but dads think that they are hotter than non-dads or at least themselves
as non-dads. Are you confused yet? Let me back up. So a study from April of 2013 out
of the University of California made a bajillion headlines because it found that in the nuttiest
of nutshells that new dads rate themselves as more attractive then they were before they
had a baby. And sure it makes sense that before becoming a father can make a guy feel more
attractive and perhaps even look more attractive to other people. For instance, look at this
stock photo of these guys just hanging out, being bros, oh dude man I'm never going to
become a dad, no, being a dad is whack. I want to sit in this field and talk about how
to get a nice tan forever. Womp-womp. And now let's compare it to this picture of Brad
Pitt carrying one of his many children. He looks so attractive as a father that he doesn't
even need to take those kind of ridiculous sunglasses off. Science media that reported
on this study about hot dads, they might call this the hod dad effect, but actually y'all
it's just, it's really just Brad Pitt's genetics. There is a connection between virility, fertility
and a guy's perceived masculinity, how he feels about himself, all of these kinds of
things, these biological, sociological, cultural things are tied up so the researchers said
you know it makes a bit of sense that if a guy becomes a father maybe he looks in the
mirror and sees himself as a more responsible person, he has a baby, that is his spawn,
so he thinks that maybe he's a little bit sexier. But of course, as always, there is
a catch with this study that a lot of or really all of the media outlets did not report on.
Dundundundunnnn. So first of all, while new dads did rate themselves as more attractive,
it was only new dads who became new dads within the first year of marriage. When the researchers
looked at men who had had babies during their second year of marriage, the results were
not statistically significant, they did not have a postpartum glow as some of the media
outlets reported. Perhaps it's the quick succession of becoming a husband and a father that really
gave those guys an actual measurable boost in self-perceived sexiness. Secondly that
attractiveness boost was temporary.When researchers went back and looked at new dads down the
line when their kids were maybe toddlers, they didn't feel as sexy as they did when
they were new dads. The baby effect goes a little something like this: Oh I had a baby,
I'm the hottest guy in the world, oh my god being a father is really hard and I've had
grey hairs coming in, I'm just very tired. Having a baby unfortunately is not a magic
pill to long term feelings of attractiveness. Uhhh. And thirdly and finally this data came
from people who became parents in the early 1990s so you have to take that into account
in terms of feelings of attractiveness, what as attractive at the time. In the early 1990s
for me AC Slater from 'Saved By The Bell' was kind of the symbol of hot masculinity.
I would kind of take all of this with a massive grain of salt. So for all of the number one
dads out there, Happy Father's Day and kids give your dad a hug this weekend, give him
a call, all that stuff. Or if you don't have a dad, whoever your father figure is, give
him a high-five for being an awesome and if you are a dad watching I also would love for
you to comment on whether or not his study finding held up for you. When you held that
baby in your arms for the first time, did it make you feel like more of a man? When
you looked in the mirror once you became a father did you say to yourself, 'My god you're
looking good'? Let me know in the comments. Happy Father's Day y'all.