Slashdot Mirror


Genetic Studies Prove Cuckolded Fathers Are Rare In Human Populations

HughPickens.com writes: A common urban myth is that many fathers are cuckolded into raising children that genetically are not their own -- a fear fueled by the paternity tests that have become a standard staple of gossip magazines, talk shows, and TV series. Now, Carl Zimmer reports at the New York Times that our obsession with cuckolded fathers is seriously overblown as a number of recent genetic studies have challenged the notion that mistaken paternity is commonplace. It wasn't until DNA sequencing emerged in the 1990s that paternity tests earned the legal system's confidence. Labs were able to compare DNA markers in children to those of their purported fathers to see if they matched. As the lab tests piled up, researchers collated the results and came to a startling conclusion: 10 percent to 30 percent of the tested men were not the biological fathers of their children. There's only one problem with these previous studies: the results didn't come from a random sample of people. The people who ordered the tests already had reason to doubt paternity.

In a 2013 study, Dr. Maarten H.D. Larmuseau used Belgium's detailed birth records to reconstruct large family genealogies reaching back four centuries. Then the scientists tracked down living male descendants and asked to sequence their Y chromosomes. Y chromosomes are passed down in almost identical form from fathers to sons. Men who are related to the same male ancestor should also share his Y chromosome, providing that some unknown father didn't introduce his own Y [chromosome] somewhere along the way. Comparing the chromosomes of living related men, Larmuseau came up with a cuckoldry rate of less than 1 percent. Similar studies have generally produced the same low results in such countries as Spain, Italy and Germany, as well as agricultural villages in Mali. "The observed low EPP rates challenge the idea that women routinely 'shop around' for good genes by engaging in extra-pair copulations," concludes Larmuseau . "The (potential) genetic benefits of extra-pair children are unlikely to be offset by the (potential) costs of being caught, particularly in such a long-lived species as humans with heavy offspring dependence and massive parental investment."

2 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who cares if it ain't yours? by goose-incarnated · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    However, my personal experience with (maybe) ten or so women who were married to someone else is that I felt *much* safer ejaculating into them than with the single women I've been with.

    Question: are these hypotheticals or are you actually bragging about your conquests on slashdot?

    Why would I *now* brag about conquests? I've never done so before, regardless of the number of times I get told by people-without-an-argument that I must be a lonely virgin sitting in a basement somewhere. IOW - I've had plenty of opportunities to respond to abrasive comments questioning my sex-life before now and I've not actually done so, with one exception.

    FWIW, just look at all the responses to my comments over the past year or so from PopeRatzo - 9 out of 10 are simply insults at my masculinity. Had I be the type to boast about conquests I would have taken advantage of a number of opportunities already afforded to me by the crowd that insists on filling every discussion with insults.

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  2. Re:Put it to rest by asdfman2000 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Paternity fraud is equivalent to pyramid schemes, long-term cons, or any other form of white-collar fraud, and that is the level at which it should be prosecuted.

    I would rather be violently raped than have my wife impregnated by another man and then be tricked into raising it.

    There's a stigma (and shame) attached with both, but being cuckolded is guaranteed to throw your life into a tailspin, while being violently raped is only mostly-like to.