May 28 2009
Opposites Attract, But Not On All Levels
Both my wife and I love flowers. And we both enjoy watching football. So we are not opposites in that regard. In fact, psychology research has shown that people tend to marry individuals that are similar to themselves. In education level, values, etc. Yet the biological sciences suggest that couples may be attracted to “different” for immunological reasons.
Like the findings from this study:
Professor Maria da Graça Bicalho, head of the Immunogenetics and Histocompatibility Laboratory at the University of Parana, Brazil, says that her research had shown that people with diverse major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) were more likely to choose each other as mates than those whose MHCs were similar, and that this was likely to be an evolutionary strategy to ensure healthy reproduction.
Well, that’s not very sexy. But what a “brilliant” adaptation.
Within MHC-dissimilar couples the partners will be genetically different, and such a pattern of mate choice decreases the danger of endogamy (mating among relatives) and increases the genetic variability of offspring. Genetic variability is known to be an advantage for offspring, and the MHC effect could be an evolutionary strategy underlying incest avoidance in humans and also improving the efficiency of the immune system, the scientists say.
Other research [see my Love at First Sniff] has found that the cue to immunological difference is olfactory.
So perhaps I love my wife both because we enjoy the same activities and because, for some strange reason largely beyond my awareness, she smells good.
Love is a crazy thing.
