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Apr 10“Hybrid vigour.”
Firefox crashed right after I loaded this, so I don’t remember exactly where I found this, just that it was during a bit of exploration that started with Roger Ebert’s Twitter stream1. Anyway, the short version of the quote below is that interracial people are hotter:
Previous, small scale, studies have suggested that people of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people. Here, it is suggested that the reason for this is the genetic process of heterosis or hybrid vigour (ie cross-bred offspring have greater genetic fitness than pure-bred offspring). A random sample of 1205 black, white, and mixed-race faces was collected. These faces were then rated for their perceived attractiveness. There was a small but highly significant effect, with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as more attractive. This result is seen as a perceptual demonstration of heterosis in humans—a biological process that may have implications far beyond just attractiveness.
Of course, there’s also empirical proof that minorities do worse than white folks on OKCupid (make sure you jump to the bottom for a surprising chart), but the lesson is: white ladies, if you want your offspring to be scientifically more attractive, get knocked up by one of us2. It’s really what’s best for your kids. Plus, they’ll get more scholarships.
- This is, I promise, the only exploration of any of Roger Ebert’s streams that I will be doing. ↩
- This also might explain white guys’ interest in Middle Eastern women–they’ve got the olive skin and dark features of, say, Latin women, but due to white dudes’ general cultural illiteracy, there might not be as many negative preconceptions. ↩