University of New Mexico researchers, in the October 2006 issue of Psychological Science published a truly fascinating study that looks at the rate of “sexual attractiveness” and extra pair matings as a function of MHC dissimilarity… See the abstract below, and PDF here.
ABSTRACT—Preferences for mates that possess genes dissimilar to one’s own at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a polymorphic group of loci associated with the immune system, have been found in mice, birds, fish, and humans. These preferences may help individuals choose genetically compatible mates and may adaptively function to prevent inbreeding or to increase heterozygosity and thereby immunocompetence of offspring. MHC-dissimilar mate preferences may influence the psychology of sexual attraction. We investigated whether MHC similarity among romantically involved couples (N = 48) predicted aspects of their sexual relationship. All women in our sample normally ovulated, and alleles at three MHC loci were typed for each person. As the proportion of MHC alleles couples shared increased, women’s sexual responsivity to their partners decreased, their number of extrapair sexual partners increased, and their attraction to men other than their primary partners increased, particularly during the fertile phase of their cycles.
They claim that natural selection favors offspring heterozygosity via enhanced resistance to parasites and pathogens.. this mechanism has been largely supported by several studies.
I believe there is an alternative scenario- and will try and articulate it shortly…
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