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One Night Stands May Be Genetic
An anonymous reader writes "So, he or she has cheated on you for the umpteenth time and their only excuse is: 'I just can't help it.' According to researchers at Binghamton University, they may be right. The propensity for infidelity could very well be in their DNA. In a first of its kind study, a team of investigators led by Justin Garcia, a SUNY Doctoral Diversity Fellow in the laboratory of evolutionary anthropology and health at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has taken a broad look at sexual behavior, matching choices with genes and has come up with a new theory on what makes humans 'tick' when it comes to sexual activity. The biggest culprit seems to be the dopamine receptor D4 polymorphism, or DRD4 gene. Already linked to sensation-seeking behavior such as alcohol use and gambling, DRD4 is known to influence the brain's chemistry and subsequently, an individual's behavior."
I just can't help it.
Somehow telling my wife, "Hey, it's in my DNA, I just can't help it!" doesn't make her any less pissed off...
And actually, these are very desirable genes, since they apparently also make you a world class football player, basketball player, soccer star, or golfer!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Or, get a research job that gives you an excuse to hang out in casino bars more often.
Spoiler alert! Every thing is genetic.
Everything everyone has ever done was determined by their genetics; that doesn't make infidelity less despicable.
Yeah, because cheating spouses never come back home again and spread disease back to their faithful spouses...
Try again.
Research suggests one-night stands are responsible for new genetics.
Are you saying that people can't keep it in their jeans because it's in their genes?
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Why would you brush your teeth before cunnilingus?
Some people brush their teeth before going to bed, and then have sex. But it isn't just brushing your teeth, it could be eating corn chips, or HoneyComb cereal, or anything else that can give you cuts in your mouth.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The media does not understand basic research. In this case, we see its obsession of finding genes for behaviors; it almost never works that way.
Genes aren't smartphone apps; you can't just say "there's a gene for that."
Genes are more akin to code than to building blocks. A gene is more like a function than it is like a brick or mortar, and we have very little understanding of how genes interact with each other.
I'd like to give a "bravo!" to the authors for making the paper an open-access journal article. I know that's a hard sell to publishers. The full paper is available to all without registration.
The paper itself explains the high chance that this is overblown:
It is also important to sound several notes of caution. First, a consistent challenge in genetic association studies are that of third variable confounds, or unmeasured variables that are causally responsible for the observed finding but are associated with the measured variables thus generating a spurious association. ...
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
My wife and I are very open and honest with each other. Suffice to say, our risk of getting AIDs is far and away much lower than say...a crack whore.
Life is not for the lazy.
Ever go down on her after brushing your teeth?
Actually, gums tend to bleed after brushing and flossing. You and your partner are much more likely to transmit and receive a viral STD shortly after that hygienic activity.
Life is not for the lazy.
As a male, I really like how the summary starts with "He or she has cheated". It doesn't paint infidelity as a typical male thing. I'm sick of the rosy picture in which this society paints our women. The most conservative statistics say that close to 50% of females admit to sexual infidelity. And yes, women are horny and have fun but not with their partner although in a different way from men, and yes, women frequently strike out at their partners, and not simply in self-defense; in 24% of violent American marriages, the woman is the only abuser. I vividly remember the Teen mom lashing out episode of the MTV show Teen Mom, where she throws a few jabs and a right hook in her boyfriend's face.
They're humans, just like men.
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They wouldn't stay all night if you just paid them after the act was done.
"I can't help it." usually equates to "I have no self-discipline." The longer that fact goes ignored, the worse it becomes. Very few things are truly involuntary. Such as projectile vomiting.
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Free your mind - Flush your toilet
Plenty of people don't have any longterm commitment to a sexual partner, especially when they're young. Some of them have one night stands. Some are celibate between longer (than one night) term exclusive relationships. But probably most of them have one night stands. That's not infidelity.
Nor is it genetic. One night stands are mostly determined by what the other partners want or are willing to accept from the person, not the person's own genetics.
An interest in fidelity or infidelity might be genetic, but of course the other people have a lot do do with it.
Once again, a very narrow set of new and interesting data about genes is exaggerated to say something wrong about broad human behavior.
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