Here's something interesting about mate selection in humans ... I found it so fascinating I did not even fall asleep at all during my Human Genetics and Evolution class today. Well, as you people know, it is generally accepted that women are more picky than guys when choosing partners. Personally, I find this really hard to accept since personal and friend experiences have instead suggested the contrary, but that is another point. Let me let you in on what researchers have found out instead. Using the assumption that women are more picky, these researchers from the University of Chicago (yeah, that's here!) attempt to elucidate the reasons for this seemingly unfathomable occurance. A summary of their findings can be found here. In the experiment, a group of guys were told to wear the same shirt for a few days without using cologne or deodorants or perfume or whatever stuff that would corrupt their natural odour. Then these shirts were collected, and given to another sample of women to smell. These women were asked to select those shirts whose odour appealed to them. (Personally I think this is rather gross. I don't even smell my own clothes .... why would I go smell someone else's stuff? Do you think I have nothing better to do? Well, fortunately there are people who are willing to be lab rats for the sake of some pay, so lucky us!) The blood group of the guys and women and parents of the women were then collated. From these blood groups, the identity of the HLA antigens in each individual could henceforth be determined. For non-biology frenz out there, HLA stands for Human Leucocyte Antigens. They are present on the surface of our body cells, as a means of immunity against foreign particles. When some foreign body enters the cell and is incompatible with the body's own HLA, an immunity response is triggered and these foreign objects destroyed. So yah, back to the story. What do you think the researchers found out?
They made the surprising discovery that those guys whom each woman found attractive (ie based on the niceness of their odour) had similar HLA antigens as the father of each woman. It did not matter what the HLA antigens in the mother was, but that if a guy had similar HLA antigens (and thus blood group) as the dad, then the girl seemed to find the guy more attractive. Sounds like shit rite? Yeah I totally agree! If this applied to guys to, then doesn't it mean that since I have blood type O, and hence no A or B antigens, I would be attracted to a girl whose dad or mum was similarly of blood type O, and hence the girl would be either of blood type A, B or O? To cut the long sentence short, does this mean then that I am not attracted to girls of blood type AB? Rubbish! That would diminish the pool by a quarter. Of course I don't believe in it!
call yourself a biologist Yongchun! People with bloodtype AB are very rare, so your mate pool wouldn't actually be decreased by 1/4. If there actually are enough potential candidates to cover all the blood grps in the first place :P
2 Comments:
VEry intersting post..
Hmmz...
:)
I think u shld just get a gf..
SERENE has alot of friends.. :)
call yourself a biologist Yongchun! People with bloodtype AB are very rare, so your mate pool wouldn't actually be decreased by 1/4. If there actually are enough potential candidates to cover all the blood grps in the first place :P
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