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Body hair helps in thermoregulation.
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Scalp hair protects your scalp from the scorching sun, but traps the heat even if you are in a cold environment.
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Eyelashes are like screen doors for the eyes, keeping bugs and dust and small debris particles out whenever they are open.
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Eyebrows prevent sweat from getting into your eyes.
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Armpit hair, technically known as “axillary” hair, collects and transmits pheromones while acting like body hair WD-40, reducing the friction between the skin on the side of the hand and the skin on the side of the chest while we are walking and We swing our arms. .
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Pubic hair also helps reduce friction, as well as provide a level of protection from bacteria and other pathogens.
But facial hair? You will notice that it does not appear on that simple list of adaptive hairy features.
In the early days of the study of this type of material, evolutionary biologists believed that it could serve the same thermoregulatory or prophylactic purposes as body hair and pubic hair. Darts and mustaches surround the mouth, and the mouth takes in food and other particles that can cause disease. The beard and mustache are also on the face, which is attached to the head, which loses a lot of heat from the top if not covered with hair. It all makes sense when you look at it that way.
Except there is a problem with this theory: it leaves 50 percent of the population, i.e., Women. Natural selection is ruthless, and it has sent many species like Dodo – for example, Dodo – but rarely, if it ever comes, it chooses for a species trait like that and stops half the population, especially All children make up (i.e., the most important half). If facial hair were to perform important functions, it would be present in both sexes. Instead, thick, mature facial hair is present almost entirely on half of the race, and its only function is to sit on the wearer’s face as a sign that everyone is crossing his path.
What the signal does Send facial hair? Well, here it goes a little bit like decorative features where it becomes a little more complicated. Geoffrey Miller, a professor at the University of New Mexico and one of the leading evolutionary psychologists in the field, says: “The two main revelations for a man’s facial hair are introspective attraction (attracting women) and intrasexual competition (intimidating rival men).” Basically, facial hair gives a hint of something else for potential partners (i.e. skills and sexual maturity, hubba-hubba-type stuff) and potential rivals (modesty and wisdom or religiosity). Taken together, these signs give men with the most majestic mustaches or the largest, burlist daards an elevated status of their own brand.
The facial hair that sends the signal is more common among men who are more normal and more reliable than men who are partners. In fact, evolutionary biologists will tell you (if you ask them) that while some women really like facial hair, and some don’t and some don’t care less, often not attraction, has to do with the density of the beard. As anything else. That is, if you are in a place where there are many dardis -, say, the Lumberjack Convention -, then a clean-shaven face is more attractive, but if you are surrounded by open faces, dardis are best.
In evolutionary genetics, this is called “negative frequency dependence” (NFD), which speaks to the idea that science benefits when a symptom is rare in a population. In guppies, for example, males with a unique combination of colored spots are more often mate and less prey. This is a big competitive advantage. It’s like going to Vegas expecting to lose $ 1,000 but also hoping to break even, just to win instead of winning 1,000. That’s a $ 2,000 swing! It is the same for the feature with NFD selection. The trait becomes the life of the party from fighting for his life. The disadvantage is that the competitive advantage can lead to a population of other people with the same trait very quickly, as it does a very interesting looking guppy – which means it loses its rarity and becomes normal. No need to worry, nature has a remedy for this: as more guppies have the same trait, it leads to a decrease in interest from the partner and an increase in the hunter’s attention. What was once a new gossip becomes, in other words, old news.
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