{"id":2596,"date":"2005-06-17T12:57:13","date_gmt":"2005-06-17T11:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yummy-wakame.com\/archives\/2005\/06\/17\/the-science-of-attraction\/"},"modified":"2005-06-17T12:57:13","modified_gmt":"2005-06-17T11:57:13","slug":"the-science-of-attraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/2005\/06\/the-science-of-attraction\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science of Attraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chad’s latest post<\/a> got me thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n

The study of attraction has so far identified two main ways in which we evaluate, on a sub-conscious level, whether a person is evolutionally fit enough to carry our ‘genes’. A sort of ‘sixth-sense’.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Judging beauty is looking at another person and figuring out whether you want your children to carry their genes.”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"armpit\"‘One of the first and most famous experiments on the science of attraction asked women to rate intensity, pleasantness, and sexiness based on men’s sweaty T-shirts. Claus Wedekind of the Zoological Institute at Bern University in Switzerland wanted to see if women could differentiate between men with similar and dissimilar immune systems.<\/p>\n

Dr. Wedekind believed that women, using pheromones as signals, would rate T-shirts from men with dissimilar immune systems higher on all three counts, thus making the likelihood of genetically diverse, healthy offspring greater. He found that “women… who are dissimilar to a particular male’s MHC [immune system markers of identity] perceive his odor as more pleasant than women whose MHC is more similar to that of the test man.”<\/p>\n

Further evidence that pheromones might play a role in attraction was found by Dr. Carole Ober of the University of Chicago’s Department of Human Genetics. Her group took DNA samples from an isolated religious group called the Hutterites. This group from South Dakota marries among themselves and tends to have large families. The Hutterites descend from 64 European immigrants and thus have a similar genetic make-up, including immune system types.<\/p>\n

The University of Chicago group examined the haplotype matches of MHC immune system markers for couples. Random pairings in the colony, based on genetic data generated by a computer simulation, were compared to the colonies’ actual couples. The simulation predicted many more haplotype-matched couples (identical immune systems) than were actually found in the Hutterites. Dr. Ober’s explanation? She believes that pheromones could have prevented couples with identical immune systems from being attracted to each other.’<\/p>\n

‘Beyond pheromones, many scientists believe that body form, especially symmetry, conveys a sub-conscious message of fitness and initiates attraction. The theory goes that asymmetrical phenotypic features give clues to underlying genetic problems, thus yielding less viable offspring. One paper published in 1994 explains that symmetry is used “as a means of ascertaining the stress susceptibility of developmental regulatory mechanisms.” In other words, organisms that maintain symmetrical features under environmental stresses also maintain healthy, unaffected genomes. Symmetry is simply a way for an organism, including a human, to advertise that genetic fitness.<\/p>\n

\"LauraNumerous studies of symmetry in humans have shown that men especially are more attracted to women with symmetrical features. (One hypothesis suggests that women are not as concerned with symmetry because instead of breeding, they look for a mate that can provide food and protection for their offspring, i.e., money and power for humans.’<\/p>\n

‘Not everyone is convinced that pheromones and body form control attraction. One skeptic of the idea of pheromone influence, a biologist at Arizona State University, says, “I think mate choice is probably a lot more complicated, particularly in humans.”‘<\/p>\n

Yes, what about the surge of people who fall in love online? Some fall in love before they have even seen or smelt each other…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chad’s latest post got me thinking. The study of attraction has so far identified two main ways in which we evaluate, on a sub-conscious level, whether a person is evolutionally fit enough to carry our ‘genes’. A sort of ‘sixth-sense’. “Judging beauty is looking at another person and figuring out whether you want your children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,213,232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogalog","category-food-for-thought","category-sex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}