the benefits of being multiracial

Posted on March 23, 2008
Filed: Lifestyle

   

 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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