The more genetically different two people are, the more attracted they are to each other. Such conclusion was made by Brazilian scientists. They believe that choosing life partners, people tend to pick those with the most different genetic makeup from their own. How can this be possible? Don’t we usually fall for partners similar to us?
The key is that combination of two different gene pools increases the chances of conceiving strong and healthy offspring. We are programmed by nature to follow this principle when choosing life partners.
The scientists examined 90 real couples and 152 “virtual” couples, which were specifically created for the experiment. It was found that spouses generally do not share the major histocompatibility complexes (MHC). Similar observation, however, was not made in the “nonexisting” couples.
MHC is a large family of genes, which play an important role in the immune system and the development of immunity in vertebrates.
Professor Maria da Graca Bicalho commented on those observations saying that if MHC has no correlation with partner selection, then they should have received same set of data for both groups of couples. However, they observed that most of the real couples do not share the same set of genes. As this was a designed scientific experiment, this could not be just a coincidence.
Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/svilen001.
