Social Econ Blog

Back in college, my roomates decided that my preferences for blonde hair, blue-eyed girls was sufficiently consistent that they developed a term for the types of girls I was more attracted to -- the Bryce Girl. For the record, let me state that this does not mean that I only find these traits attractive, but, on average, I tend to notice these traits more than others. Anyhow, this article suggests that my blue-eyes may be responsible:

Blue-eyed men prefer blue-eyed women, apparently because eye color can help reveal whether their partner has been faithful, researchers said on Monday.

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Under the laws of genetics, two parents with blue eyes will always have blue-eyed children, it said. So a blue-eyed man can know his blue-eyed wife or partner has cheated on him if their child has brown eyes.

“Blue-eyed men may have unconsciously learned to value a physical trait that can facilitate recognition of own kin,” the scientists said in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

The scientists asked 88 students to rate the attractiveness of models based on pictures manipulated so that half of them had blue eyes and the other half had brown eyes. The blue-eyed men in the group showed a preference for blue-eyed women.

But brown-eyed men, who cannot find any clues about paternity from a child’s eye color, had no preferences by eye color. Women showed no preference for brown- or blue-eyed men, irrespective of their own eye color.