Environmental Influence on Gender

There are many well-established natural factors that bias the sex ratio of human offspring, proving that it is at least possible. The most famous is the returning-soldier effect. During and immediately after major wars, more sons are born than usual in the belligerent countries as if to replace the men that died. (This would make little sense; the men born after wars will mate with their contemporaries, not with those widowed by the war). Older fathers are more likely to have girls, but older mothers are more likely to have boys. Women with infectious hepatitis or schizophrenia have slightly more daughters than sons. So do women who smoke or drink. So did women who gave birth after the thick London smog of 1952. So do the wives of test pilots, abalone divers. rainfall for drinking water, there is a clear drop in the proportion of sons born 320 days after a heavy storm fills the dams and churns up the mud. Women with multiple sclerosis have more sons. as do women who consume small amounts of arsenic.

Notes:

Various environmental stresses that cause pregnancies to produce more females.

Folksonomies: evolution environment sex gender

Taxonomies:
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/science/ecology/pollution (0.447775)
/society/unrest and war (0.422314)

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Entities:
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The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Ridley , Matt (2003-05-01), The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, Harper Perennial, Retrieved on 2011-05-03

Folksonomies: evolution culture sex evolutionary psychology