Don’t, like, take it personally, dads. It’s just, like, our girl time.
Researchers have found that when daughters are at the peak of their monthly fertility, their bodies unconsciously direct them away from their fathers (or other male relatives), evidently to decrease the chance of inbreeding.The behavior has long been observed in animal species—evolution’s way of keeping the species strong—but until now, nobody’s tested whether humans follow suit. Turns out we do, only our equivalent of keeping to our own burrow is to give dads the silent treatment.
“Women call their dads less frequently on these high-fertility days and they hang up with them sooner if their dads initiate a call,” researchers said. (Daddy convos lasted an average of 1.7 minutes per day at high fertility, compared to 3.4 minutes per day at low fertility.)
Though it’d be easy to attribute this to daughters’ general attempt to shuck off parental coddling, women were found to increase contact with their mothers during the same period of fertility. Scientists reassure fathers that this has nothing to do with their daughters’ level of affection for them.
I really wish magazines would stop giving studies like this one so much attention. These studies are rarely well supported with scientific data and they perpetuate the idea that women are controlled by these subconscious hormonal signs leading them to childbearing. Humans have had a hidden estrus since extremely early on in our evolution, and that has allowed women to do things like go to school and have jobs without the uncontrollable urge to procreate that most animals have at certain times during their hormonal cycles. Human sexuality is so much more complicated than the biological structure under it. To… Read more »
Do you honestly believe people are not influenced by hormones or are you just an angry feminist who hates seeing the truth about female behaviour? If the article read “Men with more testosterone more like to go to jail” would you react any differently?
Dan: Perhaps what she’s saying is the “truth about female behavior” is a lot more complicated, and encouraging dads to dismiss their daughters’ behavior as purely hormonal is a huge disservice. I don’t disagree.
Really, the truth about human behavior is a lot more complicated. Men don’t like to see their complex motivations reduced to immutable sexual urges, either.
Dan, I wouldn’t react any differently to an article about men’s testosterone since there are also studies that show that testosterone levels in men aren’t actually the cause of behaviors and traits we think of as “masculine,” like aggressive or violent behavior. In fact, it is even more of a cop-out to blame hormones for violence since violence is a more a more serious offense than avoiding your dad. I don’t deny that hormones can impact our actions and behavior. I simply believe that we as humans have more control over these biological impulses than articles and studies like this… Read more »
It is irresponsible to deny the results of scientific research. You may not like the results but your attitude toward them does a disservice to your sex. Ignorance helps nobody. No subject should be beyond investigation, no result of such studies should be hidden or denied.