Blue-eyed men prefer blue-eyed women: researchers

Reuters ^ | 10-23-06 | Anon

[Pharmboy]

Blue-eyed men prefer blue-eyed women, apparently because eye color can help reveal whether their partner has been faithful, researchers said on Monday.

"Before you request a paternity test, spend a few minutes looking at your child's eye color," Bruno Laeng and colleagues at the University of Tromso in Norway said in the study.

Under the laws of genetics, two parents with blue eyes will always have blue-eyed children, it said. So a blue-eyed man can know his blue-eyed wife or partner has cheated on him if their child has brown eyes.

"Blue-eyed men may have unconsciously learned to value a physical trait that can facilitate recognition of own kin," the scientists said in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

The scientists asked 88 students to rate the attractiveness of models based on pictures manipulated so that half of them had blue eyes and the other half had brown eyes. The blue-eyed men in the group showed a preference for blue-eyed women.

But brown-eyed men, who cannot find any clues about paternity from a child's eye color, had no preferences by eye color. Women showed no preference for brown- or blue-eyed men, irrespective of their own eye color.

A quarter of children born to two brown-eyed parents who have both brown and blue-eye genes among their ancestors will have blue eyes. The rest will be brown.

In a second study, 443 young adults of both sexes were asked about the eye color of their partners -- blue-eyed men were also the group with the highest proportion of partners with the same eye color.

[Pharmboy]

Skin color should also count for fidelity checks, right?

[Pharmboy]

Interesting, eh?

[LIConFem]

Fidelity obviates the need for paternity tests.

Or am I just being old-fashioned?

[Bosco]

Me: blue-eyed
Wife: blue-eyed
3 kids: all blue-eyed
Works for me.

[Paloma_55]

I have blue, my wife has hazel and our son has dark brown eyes.

That doesn't bother me so much.

Its the red hair and freckles that I don't understand. Neither of us has red hair or freckles.

I was talking to my neighbor the other day about it. He has red hair and freckles, so I thought that perhaps he might have some insight into the genetic transfer characteristics of those traits, but he had no idea at all.

[utahagen]

What this article doesn't mention is that sometimes mutations occur. A blue-eyed person may -- rare, but it does happen -- carry a gene for brown eyes that was supposed to be dominant but, because of a mutation, flipped and was trumped by the blue-eyed gene. In this case, a blue-eyed person would carry a gene for brown eyes that may show up when he has a child. Thus, a brown-eyed person may have blue-eyed parents if one (or both, theoretically) of the parents were supposed to have brown eyes.

[Screamname]

What if you are black and your wife gives birth to a white blonde haired boy?

[RightWhale]

There are more eye colors than blue and brown.

[pissant]

I prefer classy green eyed blondes

[stayathomemom]

A classmate of my older sister discovered she was adopted when they were studying genetics in 10th grade biology. I think it was the eye color issue that tipped her off. What a shock that would have been. However, I have also heard that it isn't a simple one gene trait.

[hsmomx3]

When we were much younger, we used to ask our mom why two of our cousins were so dark and she said they were just born that way.

Much later on, I found out my aunt was having an affair. My poor uncle, he treated those girls as if they were his very own up until the time of his death.

[lesser_satan]

Micheal Jackson is black? You coulda fooled me!

[Screamname]

Or what if both you and your wife are white yet your wife gives birth to a kid who looks very asian and wears a wig?

[Pharmboy]

And your neighbors are all brown-eyed? ;-)

[Beagle8U]

LMAO!

[The Old Hoosier]

LOL

[2harddrive]

Did you hear about the very LATEST study? Blue-eyed women prefer to cheat with blue-eyed men, but brown-eyed men and women BOTH have no such preference! Coincidence?

[Killborn]

It's a recessive trait, something hidden in either of your bloodlines for a long time.

[HungarianGypsy]

Me: hazel (brownish green with gold flecks)
husband: blue gray
child #1: green
child #2: hazel (like me)
child #3: blue gray
child #4: brown
child #5: blue gray

The real fun is how often people ask if my child have different fathers even though three look just like their dad and two look like me. People can be so goofy.

[ArrogantBustard]

ROFL!!!!!