 The widespread
impression that interracial people are better looking may be politically
incorrect but it’s not totally without merit. The more closely related you are
to your mate, the more likely your offspring will inherit two copies of
deleterious recessive genes. So marrying someone genetically distant from you
can improve the odds that your children won't suffer from "inbreeding
depression". But are multiracial people genetically better than the
rest of us? Scientific evidence answers with a resounding:
"Maybe." Until recent decades, that query was unthinkable:
"miscegenation" was assumed to be the royal road to racial ruin.
Psychology Today
magazine featured studies finding that Eurasians were regarded as more
attractive than whites or Asians and healthier because of their genetic
diversity, associated with a lower incidence of some diseases. When scientists
did a study in Hawaii on the genetics of intelligence they were guaranteed to
run into some interracial individuals. They focused their research on Americans
of European Ancestry (AEA) and Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA), but some
of their participants were both. The researchers administered a battery of 15
cognitive tests designed to measure intelligence. All of the groups had a
similar socioeconomic background. But the biracial, half-European/half-Japanese
participants outscored both the AEA group and the AJA group on 13 of the 15
tests. On the other hand, while inbreeding depression clearly hurts, the
evidence for "hybrid vigor" among multiracial individuals is less
clear, since the returns from out breeding diminish fairly rapidly the farther
out you marry from your own nuclear family.
All animals, including
humans, ideally develop symmetrical bodies. Genetic diversity leads to beauty
and symmetry. Those with mixed DNA get closer to this ideal. Symmetrical
individuals are healthier, more athletic, and live longer than their more
lopsided counterparts. Because symmetry is such a potent indicator of virility,
it's a very attractive trait; both men and women find symmetry sexy. In fact,
symmetrical men have 2-3 times as many sexual partners over their lifetime.
Good health leads to symmetry and symmetry is beautiful.
People who belong to a
single race have less genetic diversity than multiracial persons increasing the
chances of:
* reduced fertility
both in litter size and sperm viability
* increased genetic
disorders
* fluctuating facial
asymmetry
* lower birth rate
* higher infant
mortality
* slower growth rate
* smaller adult size
* loss of immune
system function.
Symmetry may not just
help us pick out our mates, but our leaders as well. Studies show that people
can correctly predict the outcome of an election 70% of the time just by
glancing at photos of the candidates. Just a few seconds is long enough to get
an impression of the candidate's leadership ability. One of the traits people
respond to most strongly is symmetry.
Barack Obama's speech at
the 2004 Democratic National Convention catapulted him from complete unknown to
media darling. Now he and Hillary Clinton are battling it out for the
Democratic nomination. But Barack was born with something that Hillary lacks.
No, it's not in his jeans; it's in his genes. Obama's charisma is rooted in
his biology.
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