Basic Trope: A man can't be sure of his paternity the way a mother can of her maternity, and his belief is only as good as her word.
- Straight:
- Alice goes to drink at bars in the evening, and comes back late; when she has a baby nine months later, her husband Bob wonders whether he's the father.
- King Bob threatens to have Queen Alice executed if she does not bear him a child. Knowing that the king is infertile, she seduces a guardsman and gets pregnant. The king has his doubts but can not prove that it's not his child.
- Alice becomes pregnant with Bob's child. Bob, who had had mumps as an adult, refuses to believe that he's not sterile and accuses her of infidelity, and she can't prove the truth.
- Alice is in a poly relationship with Bob and Charles. She finds out she's pregnant, but cannot be sure exactly which of them is the biological father, because she was sleeping with both of them during her fertile window.
- Exaggerated: Bob finds his wife Alice talking to a male friend on the phone, and instantly demands of her whether any of their nine children are his.
- Downplayed: Alice and Bob have a polyandrous relationship, and Charles has a few of the same characteristics as Bob. When the baby is born, it's hard to identify the father, but neither man minds.
- Justified:
- Prior to, or without, DNA testing, a man has only the woman's word and any chance resemblance to go by.
- The setting lacks any access to DNA testing, women frequently have multiple partners, and it's not considered socially acceptable to question a mother's identification of paternity, even when there seems to be evidence to the contrary.
- Inverted: Alice's baby obviously does not resemble Bob, and yet Bob never questions whether he's the father.
- Gender-Inverted: Alice wakes up after a coma, and Bob tells her that unbeknownst to her, she had been pregnant and this is her daughter—who looks like neither of them. Alice wonders whether she is the mother.
- Subverted: Bob wonders whether he's the father. Alice tells him that he is indeed the father.
- Double Subverted: Knowing that Alice has slept with other men, Bob is still suspicious.
- Parodied: White man Bob asks white woman Alice whether he's the father of a black baby.
- Zig Zagged: Bob wonders whether the baby's his and has DNA testing done, which confirms it. He later learns that the lab is sloppy and doubts it again, gets a better lab to confirm. Then he's told by Alice that she slept with his identical twin, and learns that his twin had in fact been in jail during the time she claimed to have slept with him.
- Averted: Alice and Bob both know that they have only had sex with each other. Therefore, no one other than Bob could possibly be the father.
- Enforced: Rule of Funny
- Lampshaded: "Am I the father?" "Good question."
- Invoked: Alice sleeps with other men, not caring what Bob thinks.
- Exploited:
- Alice becomes pregnant and gets Bob to marry her.
- Bob uses Alice's infidelity to justify his own skirt chasing.
- Defied:
- Alice only has sex with Bob.
- Bob doesn't care whether he's the baby's biological father.
- Bob and Alice have a baby through IVF.
- Bob hired a sniper to follow Alice around and to spy on her; he's on orders to "shoot to kill" if he sees her have sex with another man.
- In order to ensure that any children Alice has are going to be his, Bob makes sure to marry a virgin who's much younger than he is.
- "You must be my new daughter-in-law, Princess Alice! It's good to meet you and to ensure peace between our two Empires. There is wine in the cellar below, the chefs always serve your favorite foods and if you ever have sex with another man while married to my son I will personally kill you by peeling all of your skin off with a rusty butter knife. Did it before too. Anyway feel free to make yourself comfortable, don't try to trick me into thinking the stable boy's bastard is my grandson, and welcome to the family."
- In this setting, it's quite common for women to take multiple husbands and lovers. Even though there's no Daddy DNA Test, they all just figure they all count as dads (or potential dads), and all assume responsibility for raising any children that come along, with no angsting about who's "more" the father or shouldn't have to be responsible for kids that aren't biologically his. And the children can inherit from multiple dads.
- Reliable birth control, safe and legal abortions, and DNA testing are all available, affordable, and accessible in this setting.
- Discussed: "Are you sure that Bob is your baby's father? It sure is hard to tell." "Yes, I'm sure. I've never had sex with anyone else."
- Conversed: "Think he's the dad?" "It's hard to say."
- Implied: The baby does not resemble Bob, but neither Bob nor Alice seems to notice this.
- Deconstructed: The worry that his son might not be his causes Bob to resent both the boy and Alice, leading to arguments and a lot of shouting which culminates in Bob divorcing Alice. When he dies, Bob leaves everything he has directly to his second son (who's parentage is confirmed due to absurdly strong familial resemblance) and leaves his first son with nothing.
- Reconstructed: Bob and Alice agree to be open and honest with each other, to not lie, and to not sleep with other people. They build their relationship on communication, so there is no doubt in anyone's mind whose parents the resulting children are.
- Played For Laughs: Alice gives birth to a Chocolate Baby. She knows that Bob is not the father, but pretends not to know and tries to dodge the question.
- Played For Drama:
- The story takes place modern times, but in a fictional setting where DNA testing is illegal.
- The story takes place in a Medieval Setting (or any other setting where power is hereditary). When King Bob I dies, his daughter Carol's ascension to the throne is disputed as her younger brother David believes she is the product of infidelity on Queen Alice's part (his evidence is that Carol is a Chocolate Baby and that Alice spent a suspicious amount of time with her bodyguard Sir Jamal). David gathers a massive army, launches a war to remove the false-heir from the throne, wins, and has Queen Alice and her daughter beheaded. When DNA evidence is used 200 years later, it is revealed to the surprise of all the historians that Carol actually was the legitimate daughter of King Bob. Whoops!
- Bob finds out that the child he thought was his is not. He kills Alice over it.
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