PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Do you think that mothers teach their daughters about fashion? Well, guess what. New research out of Temple University says mothers are much more likely to copy their daughters’ sense of style than vice versa.



Anyone who’s ever shopped has seen this phenomenon: the mom in the matchstick jeans and gladiator sandals — not the fashion she grew up with but strikingly similar to what her teenage daughter is wearing.

Temple professor Ayalla Ruvio calls it the doppelganger effect.

“We have this tendency to mimic other people. It’s a tool, it’s a shortcut to achieve an identity that we wouldn’t know how to construct otherwise.”

Ruvio says her research shows a large percentage of mothers want to project a more youthful image; copying their daughters’ style is an easy way to do it. Daughters meanwhile are trying to become independent. So where do they look for fashion advice?

“The daughters are mimicking celebrities,” says Ruvio.

Which means the mothers are too, indirectly. At last we know why everyone wears those oversized, Lindsay Lohan sunglasses.

Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio