A theory of attraction…….and epidemic?
An article in today’s Daily Mail not only posits that we have “solved the mystery of mutual attraction,” but also offers a passing suggestion as to why there is an “autism epidemic.”
The Daily Mail article cites research by University of New Mexico doctoral student in Human Evolutionary Behavior Sciences Christine Garver-Apgar that appears in Psychological Science (vol 17, p 830), the journal of the American Psychological Society. Garver-Apgar and her colleagues analyzed genes belonging to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which controls how the immune system recognizes invaders. The MHC has been shown to play a role in sexual attraction; its role in relationships has not yet been studied. As the Daily Mail notes:
[Garver-Apgar] found in heterosexual couples that the more similar a particular set of genes (linked to immune system development), the less sexually responsive a woman was to her partner, and the more likely she would be unfaithful.
The thinking goes that seeking out a mate with a different immune system ensures that any children the couple have will benefit from a broader immunity against disease. Opposites, at least on a very limited genetic level, may have what it takes to make a successful and long-lasting pairing.
The January 13th New Scientist speculates that these findings might lead to a DNS test to determine how faithful a woman is likely to be to her mate.
So what does the “autism epidemic” have to do with the notion of “opposites attract”?
The Daily Mail cites Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen’s work on the “essential difference” of the male and female brains, according to which males have a stronger drive to systematize, and females, a stronger drive to empathize. Autism, he writes, can seen as a form of the “extreme male brain.” (I have written in more detail about Baron-Cohen’s theories in Empathy for the Extremes of Order on Autismland.) From this the Daily Mail posits that
It is possible that one of the causes of the autism epidemic is the growing tendency for successful men to marry and have children with powerful, assertive “masculine brain” females.
A hundred years ago, such a man may have preferred a dippy blonde on his arm, while nowadays they prefer someone who is on their intellectual and professional level.
Tony Blair and former the U.S. President Bill Clinton illustrate this trend. One interesting side effect may be that extreme “masculine” traits - and autism may be one - could be magnified.
That is, men and women who are both “successful,” “powerful” and “assertive” thanks to their having “masculine brains,” and who are both “intellectual” and “professional”—who are not opposites, but have highly similar characteristics—are marrying each other and having children who, as a result of their parents’ overly similar genetic profiles, have an “extreme male brain”—have autism. Perhaps a simpler way to express this conclusion of the Daily Mail is that “when smart women marry smart men, their chance of having an autistic child is greatly increased”—a notion that sounds like Leo Kanner’s conclusion that highly intellectual, emotionally reserved parents were more likely to have a child with autism.
I have to say, since my husband Jim and I are both professors, Kanner’s conclusion has always had a peculiarly personal resonsance with us; however much it has been professionally discredited, it still seems to persist as a stereotype about autistic persons and their families, as the Daily Mail article itself attests to. I can say that, being the parents of an autistic child quite often leads me to feel emotions that are, if I may so, rather extreme, from the deepest sadness on seeing my child struggling to say his own name or injuring himself; to rage and anger when one is told “your child will never do X,” with X equaling talking, reading, being able to go out in public, living independently, and a lot more; to incredible love and joy when one’s child says the words he can all on his own and enjoys doing what Jim and I do, whether it be long walks in the city or some really good music. And whether all this arose from a case of opposite or mutual attraction (or both), I have to say, I am certainly glad of the results and of the good life our family of three has together.
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POSTED IN: Family, Genetics, Psychology, Romance
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