Something I don't understand about human attraction.

[Ross PK81]

I've heard two things which totally seem to contradict each other.

It is said that the ideal mate we look for is someone that has an immune system which is a lot different from ours, so that the offspring will be better protected against illnesses and whatever. And that's why incest is so dangerous for the offspring that can result.

Yet it is also said that we are most attracted to people who look similar to ourselves/similar to our dad if we are a girl, similar to our mum if we are a guy.

Now isn't someone who looks very similar to us, genetically a lot more similar to us than someone who doesn't? Which if true contradicts the first thing that was said.

And whatever the case, why is it beneficial to go for someone who looks very similar to yourself?

[Tog]

I don't the reason people are attracted to people that look similar to their parents is a beneficial/biological thing.

I think it's a psychological thing. I also don't think it's really all that valid.

If it were true, I would attribute it more to being "what you know". I'd like to think that I bear no resemblance whatsoever to a female iguana, but every spring for 5 years save one, my male iguana displayed some very obvious mating behavior focused on me and my scent. I still have some of the scars from that first "date".

I think that since I was the smell he knew, he saw me as either a mate or rival, depending on the season. With people, I think it would be similar. A man might go for women that look like his mother, assuming that he had fond memories of her. The same could hold true for women and their fathers.

The reason I think this fall apart is that most of the people I can think of ended up with people that really didn't look much their parents at all. My GF's particular point of attraction is noses. Adrien Brody is much more attractive to her than Brad Pitt. Also on the list of people she's not allowed on an elevator with are Owen Wilson, Steve Buscemi, Stephen Rea, and nearly 1/2 of the NHL. No one in her family has a big nose, but for some reason, she loves them.

For me, I'm attracted to types like Jewel Staite, Natalie Portman, Keira Knightly, Kate Becensdale, (see a trend?). My mother has dark hair, but that's about where the similarities end.

[tofu]

Carl Sagan covers this quite thoroughly in, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

[Jeff Root]

I read somewhere that given a choice of mates, female rats choose the
male which smells least like her father.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Whirlpool]

Animals sprays there scent , some through urine to claim their territory .

Humans have their own scents and they spray it over their body to smell good and ....to get the opposite sex's attention.


:p

[Neverfly]

Humans have their own scents and they spray it over their body to smell good and ....to get the opposite sex's attention.
:p

Some seem to dunk themselves in a vat of it and cause asthma attacks...

[Whirlpool]

Maybe those have sense of smell problems. :p

[Ross PK81]

Some seem to dunk themselves in a vat of it and cause asthma attacks...

Oh yeah, I know those sort of people, the smell of their aftershave/deodrant fills up the whole room.

[sarongsong]

I've heard two things...How about some references, this being under Science for whatever reason[s]...

[Disinfo Agent]

I've heard two things which totally seem to contradict each other.

It is said that the ideal mate we look for is someone that has an immune system which is a lot different from ours, so that the offspring will be better protected against illnesses and whatever. And that's why incest is so dangerous for the offspring that can result.

Yet it is also said that we are most attracted to people who look similar to ourselves/similar to our dad if we are a girl, similar to our mum if we are a guy.

Now isn't someone who looks very similar to us, genetically a lot more similar to us than someone who doesn't? Which if true contradicts the first thing that was said.

And whatever the case, why is it beneficial to go for someone who looks very similar to yourself?
People say a lot of things... You should take them with a grain of salt. It's not as if science has come up with some "universal law of human attraction" à la Newton, where you just plug in a couple of variables, and get a straight answer. We just don't know for sure what makes people fall for each other. Hence the contradictions between those individuals who claim to know.

Regarding incest, there were two earlier threads here which may interest you, Incest & Inbreeding (http://www.bautforum.com/general-science/49101-incest-inbreeding.html) and Incest (http://www.bautforum.com/general-science/69023-incest.html). See also Middle East families shed light on autism genes: study (http://www.bautforum.com/general-science/76684-middle-east-families-shed-light-autism-genes-study.html).

[Gillianren]

How about some references, this being under Science for whatever reason[s]...

You know, it's okay to ask questions without references. Really.

[Fazor]

You know, it's okay to ask questions without references. Really.

Do you have a reference to back that up? :think:

[Ross PK81]

How about some references, this being under Science for whatever reason[s]...

I've just heard about it a lot on the TV and read about it a lot in newspapers.

I don't have any links.

[Kaptain K]

I've heard two things which totally seem to contradict each other.

It is said that the ideal mate we look for is someone that has an immune system which is a lot different from ours, so that the offspring will be better protected against illnesses and whatever. And that's why incest is so dangerous for the offspring that can result.
The incest taboo has nothing to do with immunity and every thing to do with reinforcement of recessive genes.

[sarongsong]

...It is said that the ideal mate we look for is someone that has an immune system which is a lot different from ours, so that the offspring will be better protected against illnesses and whatever.... (http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=ideal+mate+we+look+for+is+someone+that+has+an+im mune+system&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)
January 3, 2008
...“You’ve got to remember this whole scheme evolved when we were surrounded by very small populations,” says Wayne Potts, a University of Utah biologist and an expert on MHC science. “It could have been quite important and useful then. Now that we have 6 billion potential mates to chose from, with untold diversity, it’s utility [in people] is pretty limited.”...
MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22452653/)

[Delvo]

I can't imagine where you would ever have heard that people are sexually attracted to someone similar to their parents, but simply taking that one out is the solution to your contradiction there. That's the one that's got nothing to do with actual or popular anthropology.

[HenrikOlsen]

The way I heard it, people are attracted to partners with the same personality as their opposite sex parent, not the same looks.

One possible reason is the simple(and therefore probably false) one that since, to the offspring, parents are the role models for how people ought to behave, partners who behave like them are "better" people; so even if the personality is overbearing or abusing, they pick that person because that's how they've been raised to believe real people behave.

Unfortunately confirmation bias may have a lot to do with the popularity of this idea.

[Ara Pacis]

Here (http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19960301-000030.html) is a good article on the MHC smell/pheremone link in humans. According to the tests, women use MHC to detect differences in men that have different immunity profiles. It's not a conscious thought, but a general sense of well-being when smelling them, usually during kissing, but remotely from smelling t-shirts that had been slept in by the men for the experiment. Moreover, use of a birth control pill reversed the sense and the women were attracted to males that were closer to them in MHC profile.

When they talk about someone liking someone that reminds them of their parents, they may be referring to a patterning with a certain appearance and behavior that they link with affection.

[jokergirl]

Here (http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19960301-000030.html) is a good article on the MHC smell/pheremone link in humans. According to the tests, women use MHC to detect differences in men that have different immunity profiles. It's not a conscious thought, but a general sense of well-being when smelling them, usually during kissing, but remotely from smelling t-shirts that had been slept in by the men for the experiment. Moreover, use of a birth control pill reversed the sense and the women were attracted to males that were closer to them in MHC profile.

When they talk about someone liking someone that reminds them of their parents, they may be referring to a patterning with a certain appearance and behavior that they link with affection.

That study was flawed. There was not enough difference in the data to confirm the initial assumption that the birth control pill reversed the sense, so they reduced the sample size and got a tiny correlation - which the press gleefully licked up.

Just goes to show, don't trust a statistic you haven't faked yourself.

;)

[Ara Pacis]

That study was flawed. There was not enough difference in the data to confirm the initial assumption that the birth control pill reversed the sense, so they reduced the sample size and got a tiny correlation - which the press gleefully licked up.

Just goes to show, don't trust a statistic you haven't faked yourself.

;)

evidence?

[Nerthus]

evidence?

Here is the paper in question:

http://www.coherer.org/pub/mhc.pdf

(If that link doesn't work, one of these may:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/50182

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0962-8452%2819950622%29260%3A1359%3C245%3AMMPIH%3E2.0.C O%3B2-Y)