Is Attraction Just Genetic Compatibility?
Scientists think your body might be smarter than you think when it comes to you who want to bed.
We all know life is just an extended example of Darwinism—from sex, working the corporate ladder and everything in between—but new evidence has surfaced that our bodies may actually control who we're drawn to romantically (and it has less to do with our affinity for tall, dark and handsome than we think).
While it's been documented that scent most certainly plays a role in sexual attraction, Cornell University scientists studied the mating patterns of fruit flies and discovered the females are biologically primed to procreate with males of different strains, which is something they seem to instinctively pick up on once in their presence. While we doubt lady fruit flies flit away like uninterested homo sapien women, researchers noted a difference in behavior when around males of the same general family, and ones of more removed genes. This is the fruit fly's way, they say, of mixing and matching genes in an effort to produce healthier baby flies.
While, of course, they don't want to say a fruit fly's mating patterns match a human's for godsakes, but rather another example in nature of how attraction is largely dictated by whom you'd produce the most unique (not inbred) children. And, they theorize, women's bodies may also react differently when around more biologically compatible men.
Afterall, scientists have observed for years that people are most sexually drawn to those with different hereditary backgrounds. Not race, necessarily, but contrasting immune systems and predispositions for disease. As the study mentions the "famous T-shirt experiment" where people sniffed sweat-infested tees and were found to be most drawn to the scent of those who were a "genetic mismatch," meaning a a good match for producing healthy babies.
"In mammals, including humans, the answer seems to be 'yes,'" study co-author Andrew Clark of Cornell University said. "There is some differential pregnancy success deepening on the female's sensing of the male, and as a result of the genetic quality of males."
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