Is ethnic preference learned or innate?

Question

Imagine the following hypothetical experiment.

There are three humans. All of the same age. One female, two male. Each male is of a different ethnicity. The female is of the same ethnicity to one of the males.

All are left to their own devices with no contact from other humans their entire life. They spend their childhood on isolated islands.

Once they reach an age of 18, a doorway opens enabling the female to travel to the island of the male whose ethnicity is different to her own. Over a year, and once over her initial shock she establishes a healthy companionship with the ethnically different male. Then another doorway opens allowing only the female to travel to the third island where there is a male of similar ethnicity to her self. Again after a period of getting used to each other she decides she likes both males equally in terms of companionship.

Remember only the female can travel to the individual islands. Ignoring the fact that she

...Ignoring the fact that she may decide to mate with both males. Imagine she decides she has to make a decision for one over the other, which you think she would choose?

If the experiment could be repeated a hundred times, do you think there would be any bias towards the first ethnically different male or second ethnically similar male, or an even mix?

Elizabeth M: I'm not religious you projecting moron.

Answer 1

since the female in question found companionship with both men, i cant see any factors that would inhibit her from making her decision based on race allow. this is way physical appearance stay on the surface. other qualities will allow her to make that decision, for example, who makes her laugh or who built a nice hut on the island.... i don't know (her) ?

The topic is too complicated to just be narrowed down to "learned" or "innate" simply because of each individual's perspective and background.

It can be learned from a family or culture that teaches "blood"(has in ethnicity) should not be "mixed". This can be seen in many cultures that forbid their children to marry out side their ethnicity,religion etc..

Or it can be simply innate behavior that makes a person attracted to someone because the other person looks familiar (how many people do have you seen that date each other that look like brother and sister). Some humans like looking at a person and feeling connected to that person because they share similar qualities.

but imagine if yellow and blue were never mixed together, then there would never be green.

Answer 2

She would tend to bond and decides to mate with the first ethnically diff man she encountered
as probably he would be her first human contact
With no other available male, she doesn't have the preconceived notion of comparisons. Nor will she be able to distinguish the different ethnicity between the two much less between her and the man. So her preference here would purely be instinctive or innate. First encountered, first impressions make first experience. The second man would be a learned preference if her experience with the first went awry. And this preference won't rely on the basis of ethnicity but necessity and availability. The learned preference here is now based from a learned experience. or an established norm. or parameter.

Answer 3

In societies it is learned. But in your non realistic situation the question then becomes what is learned when there is no societal structure to base on.

There would logically be no prejudice for or against either male except for the "same as her" element. I thnk the result would tend toward choosing the same ethnic male.

Look at how many couples have the same appearance. Long noses, round faces, etc. Even the pets people pick show some remarkable similarities. It is all self validatiion.

Of course in your hypothetical scenario either the rejected male would likely turn to anger or be gratefully relieved if the female was a shrew.

Answer 4

This is an interesting question that you have posed. I believe that enthic preference is learned, not innate. In your experiment you talk about her visiting the different islands where the inhabitants are either of a different ethnicity or share the same ethnicity as her. I believe that once she returns she will base her decision to mate with a male on the choice of who she is most comfortable with.

Just because she is the same ethinicity of one of the males does not automatically equate to him being her choice. What were her experiences while on both islands? I believe it depends on what she dealt with while on each island. Did she have a negative experiences or were her experiences positive?

For instance, let's say that I am the female and I have lived on an island with an Asian male and a Black male. Suppose I returned from my trip and sought to mate with the Asian male because of the way I was treated by the Asian inhabitants of one of the islands. Or, for that matter, maybe I'll choose the Black male because we are similar in appearance and I feel more comfortable with him. Then again, I am contradicting myself if I choose the black male based on appearances alone. If I do that I am basing my preference on an innate response rather than a learned response.

I find this question hard to answer if I choose to follow your experiment. You haven't given me enough information to decide who she will chose.

Answer 5

Jesus bong hit what the... ???

Anyway, back to the question.

Biologically, species with larger gene pools tend to be stronger. This is essentially why "inbreeding" tends to not produce strong offspring.

If anything, I would therefore guess that the experiments would reveal a tendency for humans to prefer mates which vary more widely, or are more different from themselves. (mixing.)

This assumes that humans have the natural ability to prefer things which are better for themselves, biologically. To an extent, experiment bears this out. For example, we tend to prefer the taste of healthier foods, and are repulsed by the taste of poison. We also tend to prefer mating with humans who are more symmetrical, and this is biologically linked to better health.

However, your question was whether "ethnic preference" is learned or innate. I would actually think that a typical person's racial preferences are more learned than innate. This may not be true in all cases, but if we look at the fact that most people mate primarily within their own race (even within very racially diverse societies this tends to be true), then we have to consider that this may be primarily learned. Learned behavior can be very strong, and often overrides biologically based desires.

A simple statistical analysis suggests that this is learned behavior. If a society contains a large number of individuals, of widely varying ethnic backgrounds, then statistically (all other things being equal) you would expect people to mate according to a function of the total population and the relative numbers of ethnicities present in that population. If a society were 50% eithnicity A and 50% ethnicity B, one would expect there to be a 50% chance that a particular person would mate with a member of their own ethnicity, and therefore approximately half of the population would be "mixed".

This is not the case. Therefore some other force must be at play, and the simplest explanation is that we associate primarily with members of our own ethnicities for various reasons (historical precedent, feelings of safety, etc), are more comfortable with people with whom we believe are more "like us", etc. Of course we are also taught to be racist and misunderstand other cultures.

Answer 6

With no contact from other humans they will not know that their ethnicities are different. Ethnicity is assigned by society, discrimination is not inherently present from birth. Let out onto an island with other people she will have to get used to being around other people, she will not recognize them as being different from her.

Answer 7

i think of humorousness develops interior the comparable way as the different character trait; it relatively is, that's a made of our genes, our ecosystem, and our stories. that's humorous which you pronounced your puppy, because of the fact my puppy is the funniest ingredient i've got ever come for the time of. particularly circumstances she's so ridiculous, i think of to myself, "She had to have basic what she develop into doing merely then!" yet i understand realistically she's purely a organic goofball. i'm not sure off of what you ought to even base your assumption that human beings are not getting irony. usa's a reasonably super and distinctive place, you recognize? i could say that generalization has as plenty benefit because of the fact the american assumption that Brits have atrocious oral hygiene. So take that as you will.

Answer 8

Learned

Answer 9

learned.. Boring.. to long.. bla bla.. just ask a question duuuude.

Answer 10

do another jesus bong hit you freak