What
kind of dad are you? Research is
beginning to show that the kind of parent you are is to some extent controlled
by a number of key hormones.
In the
journal Hormones and Behaviour the anthropologist Alexandra Alvergne studied
the level of the hormone testosterone in men’s saliva, and how this correlated
with family behaviour. On average, the
higher the levels of testosterone in the saliva, the less time and money the
man invested in their wives and children.
Another
study, by Ruth Fieldman, reported to the Society for Research in Child
Development in Denver, Colorado, indicated that when men become fathers they
undergo biochemical changes which affect how they relate to their
children. The study looked at the hormone
Oxytocin, also called ‘the cuddle hormone’.
Fieldman found that the levels of oxytocin raised after the birth of a
child in both fathers and mothers.
Furthermore, the more oxytocin was present in the fathers, the more they
were seen to play, bond and attach to their children, then men who had low
levels of oxytocin.
What
both these studies appear to show is that your parenting style has something to
do with your biology. Indeed this makes
sense in terms of evolutionary theory, as “investment” in offspring could be
seen to be an evolutionary relevant trait, and therefore mediated by
biology.
Whether
it is better, from an evolutionary perspective, to father many children and
offer them poor support, or fewer children, and offer them more support, is an
interesting backdrop to understanding men’s parenting preferences. To reason from biology to morality, of
course, is an example of what philosophers call ‘the naturalistic fallacy’. However, some men, or so it might seem, are
going to have to fight against their biology in order to become ‘responsible’
parents.
