Genes determine basic behavior, like the behavior associated with being a predator. Or avoiding being eaten by a predator. This we know to be true because millions, zillions, of years of evolution must have shaped genes … especially in mammals with with their whopping big brains and all … to have genetically coded behaviors.http://www.bloggingwv.com/love-everybody-even-the-squirrelly-ones/ Continue reading Genes and Behavior
Tag Archives: Behavioral Biology
Behavioral Manipulation by a Parasite
I almost drank one of these things once (accidentally):
Naked Mole Rats
Sex Difference in Sex Drive
According to a story in the last issue of Psychological Science:
… for most women, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to both men and women. For men, however, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to only one sex or the other, depending on the individual’s sexual orientation. These results suggest that the correlates of sex drive and the organization of sexual orientation are different for women and men.
Plants can help you. They can kill you. And they can get you stoned.
I find it absolutely fascinating that scientists often bother to estimate the effects of diet by feeding controlled quantities of food, especially plant food, to rats to see what happens.For example, there is a common substance in cooked food that, if fed in even modest quantity to rats, causes the rats to get cancer and die in no time. This raises concerns for humans because, well, the rats died. So the substance must be “bad for you.”But this approach to nutritional science, and the reasoning that goes with it, is deeply flawed. Continue reading Plants can help you. They can kill you. And they can get you stoned.
Athletes are more likely to be gay
[Reposted without revision from gregladen.com]This is obviously true, and i’ve been saying this for a long time. And I’m not talking about the butt-slaps and sharing chewing tobacco and stuff.To a certain extent, digit ratios seem to be a reasonable indicator of the kinds of hormonal environment in which a person develops in utero. It turns out that the indicator of homosexuality is the same as the indicator of athleticism, only turned up even more. In other words, a certain kind of hormonal environment in which a male fetuses develops can result in a higher likelihood of that person growing up to be an athlete. But if that hormonal “conditioning” is turned up a bit more, you get a higher likelihood of that person being gay. How strong is this effect? Well, it’s statistically significant but not large. Is it genetic? That is not at all clear. How does this work with women? That’s not clear either.Anyway, from this we can speculate that there should be a higher percentage of gay-osity among athletes than among other men. And now there is some new information that supports this model.
A study of former high-school American Football players has found that more than a third said they had had sexual relations with other men.In his study of homosexuality among sportsmen in the US, sociologist Dr Eric Anderson found that 19 in a sample of 47 had taken part in acts intended to sexually arouse other men, ranging from kissing to mutual masturbation and oral sex.
There is, as always a twist:
The 47 men, aged 18-23, were all American Football players who previously played at the high school (secondary school) level but had failed to be picked for their university’s team and were now cheerleaders instead.
Like George Bush, right?[source]