New Scientist recommends a vital look at the science of fatherhood

Dad Brain
Darby Saxbe, Bodley Head
DID you know that fathers with smaller testicles experience a stronger response in the brain when they look at pictures of their babies? Or that these men are also rated as more hands-on parents by their partners? Of course you didn’t – but these are among the many unexpected details woven into Darby Saxbe’s Dad Brain: The new science of fatherhood and how it shapes men’s lives.
Saxbe is a psychologist at the University of Southern California who researches parenting, and acknowledges upfront that it might be odd for a woman to write a whole book on fathers. But then, she adds, that hasn’t stopped the many men who research and opine on women’s health.
Saxbe has the expertise, and makes a strong case for understanding dads’ brains: a father’s level of engagement is closely correlated with the wellbeing of both partners and children. When parenting, the whole family needs to be understood and supported.
Saxbe experienced this as a child, after her parents divorced and her father was plunged into solo parenting on the days he had custody. Although she reflects on her own past throughout, the main focus of the book is the new science, including her own work.
Alongside findings from neuroimaging papers, Saxbe shares ethnographic studies, including those showing wildly varying paternal expectations. In the Republic of the Congo, for example, Aka fathers spend much of their time holding and cuddling their infants, even while climbing trees and hunting. They are within arm’s reach of their children almost 50 per cent of the time – in contrast to the Kipsigis people in East Africa, where men believe a baby’s regurgitations and poo can harm their masculinity, and aren’t supposed to see their children in the first weeks after birth.
Globally, while mothers are often physically tied to their children through pregnancy and breastfeeding, there is wide variety in dads’ involvement. Yet fathers are often overlooked in scientific literature: a search for “mothers” returns 10 times more results than for “fathers”, writes Saxbe.
This exclusion can show up early, say when a premature baby is rushed to intensive care and the mother also typically receives extensive post-birth medical attention. The two will be patients in different wards, while the father is left to wander between them, perhaps in shock after witnessing a traumatic birth. But because fathers don’t exist in the system as patients, they are largely off the radar of healthcare workers and few will think to check in on them.
Despite this, fathers are hugely important. An engaged father is strongly linked to a child’s mental wellbeing. This starts young, Saxbe writes: toddlers wake up less often at night when fathers are part of bedtime routines. And there is evidence they play a different role from mothers.
Saxbe is at pains to debunk any oversimplification of this divide. She tells of her confusion at an Instagram post claiming children reach “peak oxytocin” when cuddling with their mothers versus playing with their fathers. She eventually unearthed the small study behind this claim, which found higher oxytocin levels in fathers when they moved their babies around compared with more affectionate touch (and the inverse in mothers), but didn’t actually look at oxytocin levels in the children.
Saxbe’s book is interesting, well-written and rigorous, but falls short in terms of overarching narrative. She starts out watching her father learn to parent, moves on to the underlying science, before looking at the practice of fatherhood. It would be good to have more sense of progression.
The book also shares some of the limitations of the scientific literature, with most research featuring heterosexual fathers. Saxbe is more inclusive, with insights about gay and trans fatherhood, as well as adoption and step-parenting, but the book is overwhelmingly focused on two-parent, heterosexual couples.
Overall, though, Dad Brain is a compelling exploration of fatherhood, showing why it is both crucial and too often overlooked. Dads deserve attention too, Saxbe convincingly argues. This book is for fathers – and anyone who cares about them.
Olivia recommends…
Matrescence: On the metamorphosis of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood
by Lucy Jones
New mothers may get more attention than new fathers, but their experiences are still largely underplayed. As Lucy Jones argues, becoming a mother is both immense personally and an “extreme socio-political” event.
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Topics:

Facts Only

* Fathers with smaller testicles experience a stronger brain response when viewing pictures of babies.
* A father’s level of engagement correlates with the well-being of both partners and children.
* Aka fathers in the Republic of the Congo spend much time holding and cuddling infants.
* Kipsigis people in East Africa believe a baby’s regurgitations can harm masculinity, restricting paternal interaction.
* Fathers are often overlooked in scientific literature compared to mothers.
* Engaged fathers are strongly linked to a child’s mental well-being, evidenced by reduced nighttime awakenings in toddlers when fathers participate in bedtime routines.
* A small study indicated higher oxytocin levels in fathers when moving babies compared with affectionate touch (and the inverse for mothers).
* Most research features heterosexual fathers.
* The book includes insights into gay and trans fatherhood, adoption, and step-parenting, but focuses overwhelmingly on two-parent, heterosexual couples.

Executive Summary

The book explores the science of fatherhood, arguing that a father’s level of engagement is closely correlated with the well-being of partners and children. The author draws on neuroimaging and ethnographic studies to support this view, noting that fathers' involvement shapes family dynamics. The text contrasts global practices, such as Aka fathers who spend significant time cuddling infants while hunting, with other cultural norms regarding paternal involvement. A key point raised is the exclusion of fathers from much of the scientific literature, which results in a systemic oversight of paternal experiences. Furthermore, the work addresses conflicting claims found in social media regarding oxytocin levels related to father-child interaction and acknowledges limitations within the research itself, such as the focus on heterosexual couples.

Full Take

The narrative operates by establishing a deficit—the systemic overlooking of fathers—and then deploying scientific data to argue for their central importance in holistic family well-being. The pattern observed is the leveraging of scientific rigor (neuroimaging, ethnography) to assert a lived, experiential truth that is actively excluded from mainstream discourse. This creates an implicit conflict between empirical knowledge and social recognition, which functions as a subtle form of resistance against a narrow definition of "fatherhood." The exclusion noted in the literature regarding fathers mirrors historical patterns where dominant groups define the parameters of acceptable experience, suggesting that the current scientific framework unconsciously reinforces patriarchal norms by defining 'normal' engagement through a specific lens. The book's admitted limitations—focusing on heterosexual couples and lacking an overarching narrative structure—suggest a tension between rigorous academic presentation and the need for inclusive, lived storytelling. The implication is that true understanding requires not just data collection, but a fundamental revaluation of relational roles, suggesting that ignoring paternal experience creates systemic gaps in societal support structures.

Sentinel — Human

Confidence

The text reads like a human-authored synthesis of psychological research and ethnographic data, characterized by personal reflection and nuanced critique rather than purely objective reporting.

Signals Detected

Sentence length variance is present; the style shifts between declarative statements and more complex observations.

The flow is logical, moving from an anecdotal hook to global examples, to systemic exclusion, then back to specific psychological findings, reflecting a pattern common in thoughtful essays.

Use of diverse examples (Congo vs. East Africa) and integration of specific academic self-critique suggests deep immersion beyond simple aggregation.

The inclusion of specific, contrasting ethnographic details alongside psychological claims suggests human research synthesis rather than pure LLM generation.

Human Indicators

Presence of self-reflective critique within the text (e.g., Saxbe's reflection on the book's structure and limitations).

Incorporation of highly specific, cross-cultural ethnographic examples (Aka fathers vs. Kipsigis) that require deep source integration.

The juxtaposition of emotional/personal narrative with rigorous scientific citation.