Jul 18 2009
Selfish Love
Our kind tends to love little ones: newborn babies and toddling children. But not all equally. Those that more resemble us we tend to love more. And I don’t mean in terms of inter-species love, although it is likely true in that case as well (i.e., humans tend to be more fond of mammals with two, forward-facing eyes than we are of, say, many-eyed arachnids).
What children do we tend to love best? Those that are most closely related to us. It certainly makes genetic sense. (Those selfish genes!) A recent study confirms this tendency. The ScienceDaily post, Fathers Spend More Time With Children Who Resemble Them, Study Suggests, begins this way:
Darwin’s theory of evolution predicts that men will take more care of children that look like them.
Time out! A bit of critical thinking here. Does Darwin’s theory really predict the above? Hmm. . . implies? Or one can infer from?
Semantic nit-picking aside, the researchers did find a correlation between these two measured variables: 1) the rating of similarity of looks between father and child by strangers & 2) the mother’s rating of the amount of time a father spent looking at, interacting with individual children, as well as the amount of money he gave to them.
Interesting. Sure, adopted children can be very well-loved. But for fathers, in the least, resemblance (as a cue to genetic relatedness) plays a role in which children are loved best.
