In a recent study, seventy men from Atlanta were asked to look at pictures of their children while having their brain activity measured by an MRI. They were then asked about their daily involvement in their children’s lives. They also had their balls measured. Apparently, the more involved parents’ brains showed more activity in the area related to nurturing, when confronted with pictures of their kids. They also had smaller balls.
According to the authors of the study, “these results suggest that the biology of human males reflects a trade-off between mating effort and parenting effort.” So, bigger balls equals more semen produced equals caring about sex more equals caring about kids less. Sure. This level of simplification is pretty much par for the course for evolutionary psychology.
Before you jump to any conclusions about testicle size being the be-all and end-all of good parenting, remember that this is a study with a survey size of seventy, which is nowhere near large enough to say anything definitive. (Which is probably all for the best, since larger studies are just a bunch of Lotharios who don’t care about their offspring.)
h/t Time
