1:46 p.m. - 2005-05-03
Oooooh ho ho... lookie this!
Are ugly children less loved?
Report: Parents more attentive to attractive kidsMSNBC
Updated: 12:33 p.m. ET May 3, 2005
Most parents would deny it, but Canadian researchers have found that physical attractiveness affects how children are treated, according to a report Tuesday in The New York Times.
Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton watched how parents interacted with their children while shopping in supermarkets and found that so-called ugly ones were more neglected and allowed to engage in potentially dangerous behavior.
The team lead by Dr. W. Andrew Harrell, executive director of the Population Research Laboratory, followed more than 400 parents and their 2-to-5-year-old children around 14 Canadian grocery stores, noting whether the adults strapped their youngsters into the grocery cart seat, the newspaper reports.
Researchers also observed how often the child wandered more than 10 feet away and whether the kids were allowed to engage in risky behaviors such as standing up in the shopping cart.
The children's attractiveness was rated on a 10-point scale by the research team.
Best genetic material?
The differences were striking. The researchers found that 1.2 percent of the homely children were buckled into the shopping cart, compared with 13.3 percent of the prettiest ones. When a man was in charge of shopping, none of the unattractive children were strapped into the carts, while 12.5 percent of the cute children were.
Less attractive children were also allowed to wander further away and were out of sight of their parents more often.
Age played a factor as well. Younger children were more likely to be secured and older adults were more lax about letting kids wander out of sight.
The researchers speculated that Darwinian behavior was responsible for the parents' actions. Pretty children represent the best genetic material and, therefore, get more attention, the researchers hypothesized.
Other experts disagreed, saying that there's no evolutionary reason for parents to favor pretty children over less attractive ones, the newspaper reported.
� 2005 MSNBC Interactive
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I love it when things like this hit the main stream and I actually have something to say about it. I don't think that at any given point in my life prior to at least beginning to read "The Moral Animal" did I ever really truly think about the fact that people study these kinds of things with an absolute purpose.
What we have here, people, is a peek into all things Darwinian. If you're offended, best stop reading now because likely I'll only offend you further but delving into the fact that I absolutely positively think that it's Darwinian in nature that parents spend more time on the "attractive" children than on the uglier ones.
I've learned quite a bit from that book but found that it just needed to be stated to have me say... "Ooooh... that's the theory behind what I always thought." None of the concepts are particularly new but the application of it all is simply fascinating!
The author of "The Moral Animal" presents Darwinian theory along with the research and finding of other social darwinist researchers (and non-darwin followers as well.) Discussions about how genetics or basic "survival of the fittest" instincts cause us to behave a certain way, act a certain way, do certain inexplicable things. It is really a fascinating book.
This particular article touches upon a section of the book I am currently reading about genetic selection and reciprocity. Our programming at our basic "advanced" beast level is still to promote the propogation of our lives and our genes. Our single most important mission in our lives is still to pass on those genes to the next generation, especially when instinctively we feel there is something that should continue on.
If I had more time I could go into it more but I see myself skirting the deeper issues in lieu of making sure that I am getting my work work done. Damn these things for popping up when I have work to do!
Anyway, "The Moral Animal"... if you're even minorly interested in the whole theory of social darwinism, check it out. Worth the read.
