What Is Special About Brown Eyes?
Pieter Maas
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They Are Less Prone to Certain Eye Diseases – The sun can cause severe eye damage and result in eye diseases like cataracts and macular degeneration. But because brown eyes have more melanin, it’s safe to say that if you have brown eyes, you are less likely to get these types of eye diseases.
What does brown eye represent?
They’re touted as being the window to the soul, but a new study says your eyes might provide a look into your personality, too. The study from the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales, published in Current Psychology, links a person’s eye color with how agreeable that person is.
- Researchers found that those with lighter-colored (blue and green) eyes tended to be less agreeable and more competitive than their brown-eyed peers.
- Blue and green eyes were also linked to being egocentric and skeptical of others while those with brown eyes were seen as more altruistic, sympathetic and willing to help others.
The explanation for eye color serving as a benchmark for agreeableness could be cultural. “Brown eyes are more common, so it could be that there is a sense of ‘belonging’ or fitting in with those who have dark eyes,” Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist, professor of psychology and neuropsychological researcher.
Brown eyes may also be more likely to come from cultures where a trait like agreeableness is more culturally and societally valued than in blue-eyed cultures.” “Blue eyes may seem cooler while brown eyes perhaps seem warmer. That can then be manifested by stereotypes about competition, agreeableness, etc.,” adds Durvasula.
Agreeableness isn’t the only personality trait connected to eye color. A recent survey conducted by CyberPulse, a division of Impulse Research Corporation in Los Angeles uncovered this colorful research. Brown Eyes Intelligence was the number one trait associated with brown, the most common eye color in the U.S., by 34 percent of respondents.
- Being trustworthy was second (16 percent said this) and kind (13 percent) came in as the third most likely trait of those with brown eyes.
- Other research has said brown eyed people have stronger eye contact skills, with researchers speculating this could be because they don’t anticipate being looked at as much as blue eyed people.
Blue Eyes The most common characteristic thought to be associated with blue-eyed individuals: exuding sweetness by (42 percent), with being sexy (21 percent) and kind (10 percent) rounding out the top three. Interestingly, in contrast to brown eyes, blue eyes were not associated with intelligence as only 7 percent of respondents thought of blue-eyed people as intelligent.
Green Eyes Twenty-nine percent of participants associated green eyes with sexiness, the top characteristic thought to be related to this color. Green-eyes was also thought of as creative (25 percent) and a little devious (20 percent). Being trustworthy and shy was also linked to green-eyed people. No matter their color, a majority of people (60 percent) wished they could change their own hue.
The most wished for color? Green, with 27 percent of respondents saying they’d switch to green eyes if given the chance. Coming in at a close second was amethyst while 18 percent expressed the desire to have blue eyes. “While it’s not often studied, the link between eye color and personality is very interesting,” says Durvasula.
What is nice about brown eyes?
What are the benefits of brown eyes? – If you have brown eyes, you’ll be happy to know they have been associated with some health benefits. People with brown eyes may be less vulnerable to certain diseases. For example, people with brown eyes appear less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration than people with light-colored eyes.
- Also, people with brown eyes have a lower risk of type 1 diabetes and melanoma of the eye, compared with individuals with light blue eyes.
- And research at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London suggests people with brown eyes have less risk of hearing problems from environmental noise pollution than coworkers with blue eyes.
The study authors felt melanin pigment may help protect nerves in the brain from noise-induced damage. But it’s not all good news for people with brown eyes. Research at the University of Pittsburgh found that women with dark-colored eyes seemed to experience more pain when giving birth compared with mothers with light-colored eyes.
- The women with light-colored eyes also had less anxiety, depression, negative thoughts and sleep disturbances than the women with brown eyes.
- Also, researchers in Australia found that people with dark brown eyes were more likely to develop cataracts than people with lighter-colored eyes.
- So, be sure to wear sunglasses that protect your eyes from UV radiation outdoors if you have brown eyes.
(In most cases, polarized sunglasses offer the greatest comfort in bright sunlight.)
Why are brown eyes stronger?
Benefits of Brown Eyes – Brown eyes may provide greater protection against certain eye diseases. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, this may be due to the higher levels of melanin. People with brown eyes tend to be at lower risk for eye cancer, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.
Why are brown eyes so dominant?
For example, if a mother has two blue-eye genes and a father has two brown-eye genes then each child inherits a brown-eye gene from their father and a blue-eye gene from their mother. The brown-eye gene is dominant and overrides the blue-eye gene, so all the children have brown eyes.
Is brown a unique eye color?
What determines your eye color? – About 75 percent of eye color is due to one gene, OCA2. It makes melanin, a substance in your body that produces, If you inherit two nonfunctional copies of the OCA2 gene from your parents, you will go on to develop blue eyes.
45 percent had brown eyes 27 percent had blue eyes 18 percent had hazel eyes 9 percent had green eyes 1 percent had eyes a color not listed above
Note: weighted to reflect the United States population at that time. In case you were planning to decorate your impending grandbaby’s nursery to match the color of their eyes, be prepared to be disappointed. It is impossible to predict what color their orbs will be.
- There are several different genes involved, which we’re just beginning to learn about and understand,” Kaplan explains.
- HERC2, for example, is a gene that turns the OCA2 gene on or off as needed.
- Different variations of it can cause the OCA2 gene to produce less melanin, which leads to lighter-colored eyes.
There are at least eight other genes that influence eye color. In the meantime, you can take comfort in the fact that your own individual eye color is like your fingerprints: something that is unique only to you. Brown eyes are the most common: Over half the people in the world have them, according to the AAO.
In fact, about 10,000 years ago, all humans had brown eyes. Scientists speculate that their elevated levels of melanin helped protect people from the, But as people moved from the sweltering climates of Africa and Asia to the cooler environments of Europe, there was less need for this protection. At some point in history, as humans migrated north, a gene mutation occurred to reduce melanin production, says Kaplan.
When the eyes have less melanin, they absorb less light. That means more light is scattered out from the iris, or colored, which reflects off the surroundings. Eyes with the smallest amount of melanin in them will appear blue, while those with a little more melanin will appear green or hazel. Archive Photos / Getty Images Actress Elizabeth Taylor in the film “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”
What is the rarest unique eye color?
Green Eyes – Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it’s been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don’t possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment. This effect makes the eyes look green, but they don’t actually have green pigmentation.
Why are brown eyes so dominant?
For example, if a mother has two blue-eye genes and a father has two brown-eye genes then each child inherits a brown-eye gene from their father and a blue-eye gene from their mother. The brown-eye gene is dominant and overrides the blue-eye gene, so all the children have brown eyes.