4 ms·
>To me this sounds like the mother's body is trying to "nudge" the odds towards a daughter But if that were true, it must succeed sometimes. Evolution doesn't
by scythe 6y ago
>To me this sounds like the mother's body is trying to "nudge" the odds towards a daughter
But if that were true, it must succeed sometimes. Evolution doesn't select for things that don't work. We should see an equally strong correlation with sex of offspring and birth order. We don't.
One possibility is that the effect reduces the harmful effects of sibling rivalry by making second sons more empathetic. However, this is basically a random guess — there are so many variables in biology that it could be a million other things instead.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> But if that were true, it must succeed sometimes. We should see an equally strong correlation with sex of offspring and birth order. There is a correlation in the opposite direction between sex and birth order, but that could be explained with a slight variation on the upthread hypothesis; instead of trying to bend things toward girls and sometimes failing with an effeminate boy, one could speculate that it is “trying” to bend things toward boys and sometimes succeeds incompletely, resulting in an effeminate boy. (“Trying" in this case meaning nothing having to do with intentionality, but merely the effect of the process for which it was selected.)
- watwut 6y ago> possibility is that the effect reduces the harmful effects of sibling rivalry by making second sons more empathetic. Is there any reason to believe that gay men are more empathetic?
- scythe 6y agoThe question is not whether they are more empathetic overall, but whether they are more empathetic towards similarly aged men, and when considering that specific object of empathy, I would imagine there is a strong correlation.