Jump to content

Men with smaller nuts may be more nurturing dads


Recommended Posts

Men with smaller testicles may be more nurturing dads

Fatherhood prowess may be related to testicle size, Emory University researchers are reporting.
 
Their new study shows that men with smaller testicles tend to be more nurturing fathers, more willing to change a diaper than their counterparts toting larger testes.
 
"Our data suggest that the biology of human males reflects a trade-off between investments in mating versus parenting effort," James Rilling, an associate professor of anthropology at Emory, said in a statement.
 
For the study, published Sept. 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers recruited 70 fathers who had a biological child between ages 1 and 2, and who lived in a home with the child and its biological mother.
 
Matching up biological families was crucial because the researchers were testing the "Life History Theory" of evolution, which says that males only have a finite amount of resources to allocate towards reproduction. Therefore, differences in fathers' parenting skills may reflect an evolutionary trade-off between putting greater resources towards being a father or towards mating. For example, promiscuous primates that have to compete with other males to spread their seed tend to have larger testicles than monogamous primates in pair-bonded relationships, Rilling explained to CBSNews.com.
 
Are these sorts of trade-offs also occurring in people?
 
"We're interested in trying to identify variables why some men become more involved in caring for their children than others," said Rilling.
 
Fathers and mothers were interviewed separately and asked about dad's involvement in hands-on care tasks like changing diapers, feeding, bathing, taking the child to the doctor or staying home with him or her for sick days.
 
Dads also got their levels of testosterone -- a male sex hormone -- measured, before undergoing fMRI brain scans to measure activity when they looked at pictures of their own kids with happy, sad and neutral expressions. Dads also looked at similar photos of an unknown adult with a child for comparison.
 
The anthropologists found the smaller the size of the dads' testicles, or testes, the more caregiving was reported by both parents. Men with lower testosterone levels were also more likely to be more involved fathers.

 

Link to comment

What was the news source you are quoting from, hh5?

 

The BBC News app had both less information and more -

1.)  But other factors, such as cultural expectations, also played a role.

 

2.)  MRI scans showed a three-fold difference between the volumes of the smallest and largest testicles in the group.

 

3.)  One of the researchers, Dr. James Rilling, told the BBC: "It tells us some men are more naturally inclined to care-giving than others, but I don't think that excuses other men. It just might require more effort for some than others.

 

4.)  The exact nature of any link is not clear.

 

5.)  "We know, for instance, that testosterone levels go down when men become involved fathers," said Dr. Rilling.

 

6.)  Further studies, involving analyzing the size before and after becoming a father, are still needed.

 

7.)  All of the men were from the Atlanta area so the relative impact of society and biology has not been measured.

 

There is no reference to the ethnicity of the father group. Was it a varied group or otherwise?

 

Life experience leads me to this conclusion: Whatever the personality type, a man slinging around a pair of Alpha sized boys or whether carrying some petite gonads, either is just as likely to produce the 'horn dog' individual.

Link to comment

 

For the study, published Sept. 9 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers recruited 70 fathers who had a biological child between ages 1 and 2, and who lived in a home with the child and its biological mother.or their children than others," said Rilling.

 

 

Two issues in addition to Ron's point about any cultural / ethnic bias, which is unclear

1. this is a minuscule sample - tiny tiny tiny!! :P

2. the sampling methodology seems deeply flawed because if the report is accurate "researchers recruited 70 fathers who had a biological child between ages 1 and 2, and who lived in a home with the child and its biological mother" which means the "researchers" pre-selected a sample of men that were already performing parenting duties - see Brink's rant about bad science/tists :lol:

Link to comment

By RYAN JASLOW / CBS NEWS/ September 10, 2013, 12:13 PM

I'm just slightly concerned because whomever wrote that article felt the need to specify what testosterone is. Who doesn't know that?

Link to comment

Oh, I scanned through the articles a little bit now.  Now everything puts in perspective, it's pretty obvious.  It's known fact guys' testosterone level do decrease when women they live with get pregnant.  It's nature's law to keep them from killing their own children.

 

That said, now everyone, keep your gayby away from guys with big balls....  :eyes a certain Texan: 

Link to comment

"Son despite what your mom says about me being unavailable, I did you right in the end. Those big balls you have, you got them from me.  Great with the broads huh?  So who cares if I didn't wish you a good night everyday?  I got big balls, You got big balls, so we are golden. 18 years don't mean nothing when you're well-equipped for life already."

Edited by crazyfish
  • Like 1
Link to comment
"Personally I'm partial to Daniel's suggestion that we look into the anatomy of the jellyfish and reinvestigate why it stings -- I find the idea that the jellyfish may be more intelligent than we at first anticipated and are mounting an organized hive mind attack to reclaim the beaches by indulging in reverse beastiality with humans one well worth putting milliions of dollars of the state's money to the test," Joanette said, with a Prozac smile on her face.

 

yes do that study :evil:

That whole story was great! Hahahaha! :lmao::lol::rofl:

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Our Privacy Policy can be found here: Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..