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Nothing Personal, Dad: Your Daughter's Not Calling Because She's Fertile
Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals
Sorry, Pops, but right now she's definitely not thinking about dear old dad. Credit: Stockbyte, Getty Images
Right, ladies? Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more. Say no more.
However, the last guy she wants around is her old coot of a father. That's just icky.
Psychologists have already established how women appreciate manly faces, masculine voices and a certain amount of macho swagger when their menstrual cycles are at their friskiest.
It makes sense from a Darwinian perspective.
Now, a study out of the University of Miami says that's all true, except when the manly face and masculine voice belongs to the woman's father. Fertile women apparently avoid their dads like the plague. Literally.
That also makes sense in terms of evolution. Our ancestors developed an instinct against inbreeding so as not to muddy up the gene pool.
"Evolutionary biologists have found that females in other species avoid social interactions with male kin during periods of high fertility," Debra Lieberman says in a University of Miami press release. "The behavior has long been explained as a means of avoiding inbreeding and the negative consequences associated with it. But until we conducted our study, nobody knew whether a similar pattern occurred in women."
Researchers looked at the cell phone records of 48 women of reproductive age. They noted all calls with parents over the course of a billing period -- identifying how much time was spent talking to mothers as opposed to fathers.
Naturally, they also tracked each woman's reproductive cycle.
"Women call their dads less frequently on these high-fertility days and they hang up with them sooner if their dads initiate a call," says Martie Haselton, a UCLA associate professor of communication in whose lab the research was conducted, in the press release.
Fertile women were about half as likely to call their fathers as they were the rest of the month. That didn't stop their fathers from calling them, of course. This gave researchers another basis for comparison.
It's all quite logical, Lieberman, an assistant psychology professor, says in the press release.
"In humans, women are only fertile for a short window of time within their menstrual cycle," she says. "Sexual decisions during this time are critical, as they could lead to pregnancy and the long-term commitment of raising a child. For this reason, it makes sense that women would reduce their interactions with male genetic relatives, who are undesirable mates."
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 3)
12-02-2010 @ 8:36AM
Kevin said...And then after she's knocked-up and the man leaves, her daddy becomes really important. Girls are like that.
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12-02-2010 @ 8:40AM
holly said...This is probably the most ridiculous thing I ever read.
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12-02-2010 @ 8:54AM
AJAK said...What Crap! During ovulation/being fertile, the female instinct is to find a mate - they're HORNY, lol, although most aren't out to get pregnant. They don't want to "mate" with dad, yuck, so they're busy doing their own thing, finding an eligible mate or being with their boyfriends. However, if incest by "daddy" ever occured, then this argument is reasonable.
Reply
12-02-2010 @ 8:55AM
Liliane Papin said...Yet another man writing his opinion about women's cycles. Nothing new since Freud and his theory of "penis envy"...I bet the study was done by men as well...they just can't stop being fascinated and projecting their own distortions. I wish men would stick to and write about their own "cycles" of wet dreams, fantasies, impotence and prostate issues and let women express themselves about their own cycles and feelings
Reply
12-04-2010 @ 8:51PM
Alicia said...We've tried. Sadly Karen Horney and "womb envy" (which is much more likely, if you ask me) were never anywhere near as well-known as Jung or Freud.
12-02-2010 @ 8:59AM
jshkneale said...It is not like much went into this study. Only 48 woman over one cell phone billing period is not what I would call a massive undertaking. The work load was probably dumped on an under grad and only took a weekend to crunch the numbers.
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12-02-2010 @ 9:16AM
Brenda said...I was surprised to see that my three year old stallion ignored his mother even when she was hot to trot and literally flirting with him. His voice was high in communicating with his mother and deep when he would call to the other mare, a non relative. He would go insane with lust regarding the other mare, so all systems were go. He just didn't look at his mother in a sexual way.
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12-02-2010 @ 10:41AM
Bill said...and now, Dad will question this, TOO.
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12-02-2010 @ 11:01AM
Alakatt said...Are you joking? Someone was PAID to come up with this really disgusting, creepy, theory? Aren't there things going on in the world that need attention much more than why daughters don't call their dads? Useless studies like this are such a boil on the face of real academias who do good work for the sake of society. The fact that Parentdish ran this article is kind of creepy, too.
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12-02-2010 @ 11:32AM
Bob said...If this study is true, it basically says women are completely neanderthal, incabalble of overriding their cave women like tendencies. Perhaps...now that I think about it...
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12-02-2010 @ 11:09AM
Poo-Poo said...EWW! eww Eww
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12-02-2010 @ 11:15AM
Toni said...What about hispanic woman that often lose their virginity to their fathers. Hispanics often believe the fathers should be the ones to deflower their daughters.
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12-02-2010 @ 12:02PM
DJ Do said...Toni, where on earth do you get your information! Hispanic? This ethic designation is too gereralized and covers any group of people who have had the unfortunate bad luck to encounter the Spanards about 500ish years ago.. So, are you saying that raping daughters to take their virginity is a European Spanish custom?! Look up Sex Taboos. Cross Culturally, every culture on earth has them and none, as an accepted whole, include have sex with daughters. This would exclude some royalty of course.
12-05-2010 @ 9:34AM
dominic said...whoever funded this nonsence should be investigated---what a waste of money---we are in a recession--use the money to feed some starving kid- miami univesity's grant money should be taken away for conducting this worthless insulting study---
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12-02-2010 @ 12:38PM
tamara said...THIS IS THE CRAZIEST THING I'VE HEARD ALL DAY!!!!
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12-02-2010 @ 12:46PM
Sabrina said...This could also explain why men do not call their mothers very often.
Reply
12-02-2010 @ 1:40PM
Bill said...... because we have to do our part.
12-02-2010 @ 1:02PM
SusieQ said...The writer said "That also makes sense in terms of evolution. Our ancestors developed an instinct against inbreeding so as not to muddy up the gene pool."
If you're stupid enough to believe in evolution, it's very likely there has been an abundance of inbreeding in your gene pool.
Reply
12-02-2010 @ 1:05PM
Annie said...This study was done with cell phone records not actual father and daughter meetings. How accurate can this be?
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12-02-2010 @ 1:13PM
Della Beiser said...ONE-SIDED REPORT: my husband was soo close to our daughter, until ... about the time of puberty. i was sad, but not too concerned, because 'it's kind of known' - that father-daughter relationships very often become strained, or awkward, in those years ... i understand that SCIENCE only investigates ONE ISOLATED QUESTION at a time, but, what makes science interesting is, little in life can be answered with one investigation! - interesting. and, logical!
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