While there’s long been talk of a woman’s pregnancy glow (despite the soon-to-be-mom often feeling the opposite), a recent study has found that new dads are total hotties, if only in their heads.

The research, from the Journal of Gender Studies, found that while new moms tend to have a lower perceived physical attractiveness, new dads get a boost. A sexy boost.

The study was by University of California, Santa Barbara Sociology Professor Alicia Cast (and friends!), and included date from 182 newly married couples with first children. Couples kept daily diaries and had face-to-face interviews. They were asked to play “hot or not” on themselves over three collection periods – at the beginning of the study (newly married), once around the first anniversary, and once around the second.

What researchers found was that men without kids had stable self-images, but new fathers got a baby bump so to speak, with an increase in perceived attractiveness. Neither husbands nor wives in the study were swayed by their spouses’ opinions of them.

Cast says that her own husband had a possible explanation for it: put simply, new dads are fawned over. There’s no shortage of compliments for dads holding babies in public. It’s no wonder guys could get to feeling a little sexier. And whether they’re truly hotties or just the average joe is irrelevant – the baby bump in self perception is good enough for us dads.

Check the link to the study below, or this Global News article on it, for more info.