Reproductive Strategies and Homosexuality

[leora]

A somewhat random chain of thought led me to the conclusion that homosexuality is actually rather symbolic of what makes humans so amazing. (Admittedly, I'm biased toward humans by being one

Comments

[leora]

I didn't read the comment you replied to as linking to human stats at all, just wondering if humans would work the same way as rats and saying it wasn't easy to know.

I don't think the fact that rats are more scent-focused is actually that relevant, because I think people underestimate the unconscious effects of scent and other chemical factors in human attraction. It's been found that people are more attracted in a scent-based way to people with better immune-system compatibility. I think scent is probably part of what people mean when they talk about that mysterious "spark" either being there or not being there for them. What we sometimes, amusingly enough, call chemistry.

But I also think that since rats are a species that goes into heat, that's going to cause some very significant differences between their mating patterns and attractions compared to human ones. Rats will be waiting for the trigger of either going into heat or having a rat go into heat (unless they are a male attracted to males) for reproductive mating. Humans just don't do that. There are some mild effects where an ovulating female tends to be more attractive, but this is a much, much milder thing. Men don't need ovulating females around to trigger them and women can be in the mood at any time in their cycle. So, we're a fair bit different from rats.

Although I do sometimes worry that significant population over or under density may affect our brains too. We are still social animals. Although we do try to find ways to compensate for less than ideal population densities in areas with those issues.