What do men who wear sandals, chase ping pong balls, and have long fingernails have in common? They cause many women ‘the pain’.
The ick is a modern slang term to describe a sudden feeling of disgust or disgust towards someone you were previously attracted to because of something he or she did or said.
Although it seems like a condition of the modern woman, scientists suggest that the ick could be more than just a dating trend — it could be an evolutionary survival tactic.
A growing body of research showing that female primates are more easily disgusted by food, potential mates and even neighbors than their male counterparts, suggests that women have evolved to be more easily extrapolated to protect themselves.
In the wild, these female animals avoid mating with partners who show signs of syphilis and are less likely to eat food contaminated with common bacteria because they are ‘exhausted’, which protects them from becoming ill.
This helps them prevent illness during pregnancy and child rearing – times when the immune systems of both the baby and mother are particularly susceptible to life-threatening illnesses.
Male animals are much less selective, Cécile Sarabian, a cognitive ecologist at the Institute for Advanced Study, tells National Geographic.
In the wild, she observed female macaques examining and cleaning their food before consuming it, sometimes skipping a meal if their food was contaminated. Meanwhile, men ate without worry whenever they could.
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While it may seem like disgust is just about being picky, scientists think it evolved to protect people from things that could hurt or make them sick.
For example, if people weren’t disgusted by poop, they could be less hygienic when it comes to their sanitation, meaning more people would come into contact with pathogens found in feces like cholera and typhoid.
Tara Cepon Robins, a biological anthropologist at the University of Colorado, told us National Geographic: ‘This is what disgust is all about: we are programmed to be put off by things that have harmed people in the past.’
All primates show some signs of disgust, but until recently scientists were unaware that a gender gap might exist.
Dr. Sarabian has observed differences between male and female macaques in the wild.
While preparing their food, the females cleaned their bits, while the males ate without much attention.
Later, when they tested the animals, they found that the girls were less likely to have parasites called geohelminth, which come mainly from poop.
Dr. Sabrian highlights older researchwhich she was not involved in, in Gorillas illustrating similar sex differences.
Female western lowland gorillas, found in central Africa, are particularly susceptible to the visual signs of a bacteria called Treponema bacteria, which causes facial rashes.
This is the same bacteria that causes syphilis.
And while people think it’s bad to be watched by their Tinder date in a bar, when female gorillas see that a male in their pack has this facial rash, they sometimes choose to leave their group entirely. to leave.
They then set out to find a better pack to live with.
Similarly, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research showed in 2019 that female olive baboons are more likely than male baboons to avoid sex when they or their partner show signs of syphilis.
The researchers therefore concluded that the female baboons showed ‘generally higher pickiness’ and were therefore less likely to become ill from an STD.
And the ick extends beyond the animal kingdom. The disgust response has been demonstrated in humans.
In one study, researchers showed volunteers pictures of dirty situations or asked them to imagine things like stepping in poop with bare feet or finding a bug in food. They then asked volunteers to rate their disgust on a numerical scale, Robins explained.
In Western societies, women scored higher than men in disgust.
Dr. Robins’ personal research focused on groups of indigenous peoples in Ecuador and found that those who responded with more disgust to a hypothetical situation were less likely to develop bacterial or viral illnesses.
Simply put, being grossed out protected them from getting sick, whether they were male or female.
This could be especially important for women, as they are responsible for raising children, whose fragile immune systems are particularly susceptible to foodborne illness.
Studies in gray mouse lemurs show that females are more selective about their food than males, and can even forego a meal if it doesn’t seem useful to sniff. Studies of western lowland gorillas have shown that females who notice signs of syphilis in one of her neighbors may leave her community
Psychologists have suggested a number of reasons why many women seem bothered by potential partners.
Texas-based clinical psychologist Naomi Bernstein agreed that evolution could play a role.
She said certain physical ailments, such as chapped lips or poor coordination, can be subconscious signals that a person’s genes are less ideal than those of their competitors.
She told Time: ‘That feels shameful, which means it might not be acceptable to a larger social group – which, going back to evolution, was essential for human survival.’
It’s also possible that the ick is purely psychological — driven by a desire to protect yourself from being emotionally hurt, New York-based clinical psychologist Phoebe Shepherd told Time.
It’s common, she explained, for people to react to unfamiliar things with fear or disgust, out of a sense of protection for themselves. Dr. Shepard said, “I sometimes wonder, when someone feels like they’re sick, is it actually their body saying, ‘This is unknown.’
If it bothers you, and you’re pretty sure it’s not for a biological reason, Todd Baratz, a bicoastal therapist, told Time that you can try to beat the feeling of disgust.
If you focus on other, more positive aspects of your date, and feel it in your heart to try again, you may find that it doesn’t really matter to you.
He said, “Dating is an experiment, and sometimes you have to run experiments multiple times to see what happens.”