Seeking: Guy, GSOH, looks like dad...

Young adults choose partners who look like their parents, researchers have found.

Though having a partner who resembles your mum or dad may not seem an ideal scenario, in fact heterosexuals tend to be attracted to people who look like their opposite-sex parent, according to research from the University of Pécs, Hungary.

This is the latest evidence for the phenomenon known as ‘sexual imprinting’, where our early childhood determines the types of faces we find attractive.

Earlier research has shown that women who are adopted choose men who resemble their adoptive father, suggesting the link is not based on genes.

Researchers studied 52 families and found a significant link between young men and their partner's father, and women and their boyfriend’s mum.

However, the resemblance manifested itself differently in both cases. The men were similar in terms of the distance between mouth and brow, the height of the face, distance between the eyes and the size of the nose. Women however were similar in the width of their lips, the width of their mouth and face, and the length of their face.

According to the study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: "Human couples who are similar in physical and psychological characteristics are more likely to remain together than dissimilar partners, possibly leading to an increase in fertility."