Throughout nature, there is clear precedent for the importance of certain physical characteristics in preferential mating. Whether it is a silverback or the coloration on a fish, certain attributes are desirable, presumably for mating efficacy and indication of genetic make-up. It stands to reason that human beings would be similar, despite our romantic notions of intellect and emotion. The investigation of human attraction has revealed a number of mechanisms by which human beings choose mates without direct cognizance of the mechanism itself.
One of these mechanisms is the expression of major histocompatability complex (MHC) alleles and its relevance to attraction and mate selection. The MHC is a group of genes on human chromosome 6 that encode membrane proteins involved in presenting peptide antigens to T cells. This is vitally important to the manner in which a host is able to deal effectively with a pathogen because the more MHC alleles an individual possesses, the greater the diversity and size of the T cell repertoire thus providing a greater chance for immune recognition of a novel pathogen antigen.
The most famous studies are often referred to as the "sweaty T-shirt" studies, performed by Wedekind et al. In these studies, T-shirts worn by men for a sufficient period of time were rated by women on how pleasant the shirt smelled. The results of this study were that women preferred the smell of a man who had different MHC alleles. Thus, if one were to mate based upon this initial attraction by odor, it would seem that the progeny would have a greater chance for a more diverse immune system and thus a better chance of being able to recognize a foreign antigen on a pathogen.
As a corollary to that study, Martha McClintock et al. found that women are attracted to the scent most similar to their father. This would seem contradictory to the conclusion by Wedekind et al. because this would result in a more homogenous immune system. Yet, this selection bias for homogeneity might also ensure the functioning of the immune system, as clearly the immune system of the parents must have functioned to sustain life long enough to reproduce.
Although it is likely advantageous to the effectiveness of an immune system to have many MHC alleles, there is an upper limit to that success. Breeding constantly with the same type of allele, however, could leave one susceptible to a new pathogen not recognized sufficiently well by the homogeneous MHC. This supports the notion of attraction as a form of finding subtle novelty within a framework of known success. It would seem that the most likely attraction and mating that would yield success would be one that has worked in the past combined with a hint of novelty to compensate for new possible environmental stressors on the organism's health.
This is a clear example of selection within the human population giving credence to the idea that people, in the most basic respect are no different from any other animal choosing a potential mate; they seek mates based upon their genetic makeup. Certainly this has been confounded by emotion, the attachment of significance and meaning to certain acts, and altered forms of stability, but it would seem that human beings are still selecting mates based upon the most basic selection principles, and perhaps not upon the level of intellect or other such considerations with the same magnitude as we may like to think.
Michael McDuffie can be reached at michaelmcduffie@cavalierdaily.com.
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