Study Explains Why Women Miscarry More Males During Tough Times

sciencehabit writes In times of trouble, multiple studies have shown, more girls are born than boys. No one knows why, but men need not worry about being overrun by women. An analysis of old church records in Finland has revealed that the boys that are born in stressful times survive better than those born during less challenging periods. The work helps explain why women may have evolved a tendency to abort certain males and could lead to a better understanding of miscarriages.

Comments

You are not in control

[NotQuiteReal]

The selfish gene wins.

Maybe it needs global climate change for the next step...

It's the production line

[Todd Knarr]

Times of stress/trouble usually mean a loss of population. The arithmetic's simple: one woman can bear one child every 9 months to a year, while one man can sire multiple children in that same time. That means that adding female offspring at the expense of male will make it easier to recover the population loss. And of course sacrificing the least resilient male offspring favors the ones that'll survive the longest and sire the most children. The fun question is how the mechanisms that've evolved to make this happen actually work. Figuring that out's going to keep researchers occupied for the next century or two.

I am going to take this a step further

[Taco Cowboy]

Be forewarned, this message ain't gonna be Politically Correct

Babies born under hard times don't grown up to be homosexuals

If we are to survey the demography of various countries there is a clear pattern ... that countries with larger percentage of homosexuals, bisexuals, trans-sexuals, and all that (male or female) tend to be those that are relatively more peaceful, with more plentiful offerings of food, and all that

Not to say that there is an absolute zero percentage of baby born during hard times that grow up to be homosexual ... there are always the exception

Take China, for examples ... during the warring / turbulent years (since the late 1800's to the late 1960's) percentage of Chinese homosexuals were very low

Now? With relative wealth and comfort, new generations that were born into kinder and gentler surroundings are experiencing an increase of the homosexual population

Re:I am going to take this a step further

[EzInKy]

So are you saying that more homosexuals are born when societies can afford the expense of pursuing science and the arts?