Andrea Parodis-Moya
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Davies

The Robot’s Rebellion and Sexual Selection

The evolution of the human race notably displays the changes that occur in the physical body in reaction to external changes, but it is equally interesting to explore the evolution of the human brain and its successful attempts (through its immense intelligence) to overpower its own biological and instinctual goals. In our lectures, specifically under ‘Evolutionary Psychology’, Davies introduced sexual selection as a part of biological evolution, referencing an experiment conducted by Claus Wadekind where mate selection results parallel the ideas brought forth; this is the base example. To further explain this evolutionary concept, the ideas illustrated by Keith E. Stanovich serve as not just as reference, but also as an opportunity to explore a perspective that could challenge our own.

Wadekind is a biological researcher that created an experiment that determined mate preference in humans. More specifically, he set up a test of women’s sensitivity to male odours. The study involved a group of female college students who were asked to smell T-shirts that had been worn by male students for three nights without scented products. The experiment concluded that women preferred the odours of men with the most dissimilar MHC (major histocompability complex) to their own. A person’s major histocompability complex is a large gene region that regulates the immune system response; the theory hypothesizes that couples are attracted to a specific scent that the MHC determines would create a stronger and healthier immune system. The results showed that women prefer the odours of men with an immune system unlike their own, which supports that attraction is influenced by biological factors. Women, biologically, choose mates with genetic traits that could increase the health of