Researching autistic asortative mating

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I have found that I'm attracted (and when I use that word you have to realize that I mean the same thing talking about a regular friend or a romantic friend - though I'm asexual so I haven't had many of the later) to people with ADD or bipolar - I find this to be a good support for the idea that these two are on the spectrum somewhere . . . the two romantic relationships I decided to torture myself with (this is before I knew better) were with a person who had severe ADD and another one who was bipolar . . . my best friend has severe ADD, my favorite supervisor at work has severe ADD . . .
I also tend to recongize other autistics on the phone (I work in a call center) and it has happened several times where I'll be talking to someone (and not someone with obvious speech problems) and be particularly interested in them and then when I ask about medical issues they will say they are autistic . . .
So I don't know if it has to do with physical traits or something else - but I am certianly drawn to people with other neurological differences . . .

I find this idea very intregueing....I've watched several shows about research about what humans find attractive...ie...semitry of features...and thought....I can see why someone might find them attractive but I do not feel attracted(chemistry)to them...My tastes have changed over the years but at 18 I couldnt feel any attraction to blonde people...and a stong prefference to large noses...I narrowed it down to "jewish" looking or some mediteranian areas...greek,italian,arab...I hope I dont offend anyone....I prefer angular faces to round and unusual characteristics to "generic model looks"I wondered if it had something to do with more comfort level in finding faces with landmarks that are easier to pick out in a crowd....Obviously personality is more important to deciding on a relationship but if we are specifically talking about physical attraction....I have somewhat limited criteria..Personality wise my current and only successful relationship is with someone who shares many aspie traits but is in denial(IMO)I prefer men who are shy but verbal,well read,creative,nonmaterialistic,noncombative but enjoy debate and intillectually curiouse...a little nerdy


(I can only except the Neanandrathal theory if it incorporates alians mating with them...more fun to invission and supported in some myths, like the bible and other religiou texts....)

I'd have a go to see what happened - right now I believe any attraction I feel for people is chemical (ie, literally chemical.) So it'd be interesting.

This is indeedly catching my attention and I'm wondering if we could do this research and an actuall pairing of people displayed on the Romatic Forum.

I've ordered the book recommended about body language. I'm not going to use it to seduce NT-women for sure, but I'm interested in what Steele has to say about the courtship behaviors. I think this could be an exciting project, especially if we can get some Aspies to participate as well.

I have quite a bit of experiences in this area as well. I think I can easily spot Aspies, and especially Aspie-females. Something gives me clues about this, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. I'm married to a "border-line" Aspie since 14 years ago, and I've met a few Aspies IRL as well.

I woke up one morning with an idea related to the whole neanderthal/cromagnon thing, and why we could be neanderthal-like, but not genetically related.

We on the AS dont have traits such as enlarged skeletal structure/bones, nor excessive body hair that the neanders did, but there are homo sapiens in the world today that do, and some that went extinct not so long ago, geologically speaking.

The inuit of northern Canada, Greenland, as well as those in alaska and northern finland/russia/siberia do have specialized features, such as stocky bodies, low profile/long noses, and high body fat. These are traits that allow them to thrive in northern climes.

As well, there are the extinct dorset people of Canadas NE. I dont know much about them, but apparently, they lacked a good deal of tool use/shelter that the modern inuit have, and yet, they persisted for quite some time. It seems to me that they also had traits in common to the neanderthals. I do beleive they were driven to extinction by the modern inuit, who are not genetic decendants of them.

So whats this have to do with autism? Well, it is possible to have two species in the same area, competing for the same niche, at least for a while. Ravens and Crows would be a good example, along with magpies. These are all genetic cousins, much like cromagnon and neanderthal. These birds do have common traits, undoubtlably related to the fact that their environment and niches are so similar.

So early Cro magnon and Neanderthal would have been very similar in habits, at least until cromag started organizing and socializing to a degree that the neanders could not. The autism traits are a legacy from our cromagnon ancestors, and not directly related to neanderthals.

See, if there is one thing I hate about some scientists, its that they forget their place and start mouthing absolutes. "NO! We are not related to neanderthals! Autism cannot be from that!" well, sure, but why couldnt Cro magnons, or even some other group have those traits? Some modern humans do.

I mean, really, I've seen people that look neanderthal. I dont think they are necessarily the genetic decendants, but they sure have the traits. Big flat foreheads, long noses, hairy, and huge bone structure. The one i am thinking of was in high school, and he wasnt particularly muscular, and he was quite tall, even at 16-17, but his face and skull fit the description perfectly.

The new agenda of saying "Omg! This rock got blasted off mars, and it contains life!" Some scientists now think life came from space. WHY? Because science seems to be a religion to some. Its far more likely that it started here, didnt have to endure high velocity, vaccuum, blast furnace like temperatures.... but thats not exciting, mysterious, or very interesting. Science shouldnt be in the myth making business. The godsmen have that niche well serviced.

Honestly, free inquiry into the full range of Asperger's/Autistic asortative mating criteria might be the more interesting and important than the proposed experiment, that actually might best be handed over to psych or soc grad students if at all interested.

rdos, interesting stuff you are investigating, are you into statistics or something similar??

I think you're confusing late-night Discovery Channel infotainment with the scientific community as a whole. Since scientists haven't even pinpointed the etiology of autistic spectrum disorders just yet, they can't even know when the autism-susceptibility genes entered the human genepool. They might go way back to our split from the rest of the great apes. Also, the it might be relatively recent.[/b][/color]

I can't tell who is aspie or neurotypical (NT) just by looking at them, or a photo of them.

It's only when I get to talk to them, and find out they think like I do that any kind of aspie-aspie attraction would kick in.

I don't know how you'd make a study of this. Maybe you could similate or borrow the dating profiles of various NT and aspie people and see which combination of photo and self description we find more attractive. I don't know how you would make this scientific though.

Maybe you could make a quiz that lists various attributes in a date, and get us to rate them attractive or not, and you could include some attributes that are specifically NT or Aspie or other stuff, to see how that works.

That would expand the parameters. A more difficult experiment, but a more informative discussion.

I absolutely hated statistics when I studied for my MSc degree in electronics. The statstics exam was the only one I had to do more than once

However, becoming obsessively interested in something tends to make it easier to learn things, so now I think I'm pretty fluent in statistics.

I think the evaluations have a little bit of "aspie-touch" too. Being a professional computer programmer, with my own operating system behind me, I've coded the evaluations entirely in C++ with no external libraries. The only part I use external software for is the Principal Components Analysis, but this was only because I couldn't find the algorithm. It still annoys me that I have to import the data into the program and export it back into my evaluation system. It would be much "cleaner" if I had the algorithm. OTOH, by exporting raw-data to an external application, I know my results are correct.

Do you think anybody would dare to do it? I doubt it. It would be politically incorrect to assume there even existed asortative mating between Aspies.

I think we are "on our own" on this. I suspect no professional would do anything like this. It was several years since I proposed somebody tested if people with prosapagnosia (PA) could more easily recognize Neanderthal faces, and I've even emailed to some people doing research on PA, but AFAIK, nobody has done this experiment yet. It is simply too "politically incorrect".

Yes, but it seems like there is no real interest for this in the scientific community. I suspect this is due to the fact that starting to use evolutionary frameworks for autism, and especially AS, tend to produce inconsistent results. Since most researchers want to believe it is some kind of genetic damage, but cannot fit this onto the too large prevalence, they ignore the issue instead.

I am a regular on an EP (evolutionary psychology) forum with many professional participants. Since some time ago I've been allowed to give my views of autism and evolution on the forum. Eventually, this might in the long run lead to some research in the area.

As for when the split occured, most things speaks against an early split. It would be anticipated that maladaptive traits would eventually be selected out. The longer ago the split occured, the less of maladaptive traits should be linked to autistic advantages. The prevalence in various ethnic groups, while not really researched properly, still speaks against similar levels in Eurasians and Africans. The latest Aspie-quiz seems to indicate that Africans have 5-10 times lower prevalence.

There is no shyness among scientists in bandying about the hypothesis. I doubt that Political Correctness is an issue. The quality of the science, however, might indeed be more cause for concern.

My own interest piqued in assortative mating relates to my own inquiry into the prospect of better stimulating activity and even effective social networking among Aspies, beyond just better communication per se.

'Not Aspie enough!' at: http://www.wrongplanet.net/asperger.htm ... highlight=

'Aspie culture and Aspie candor: Hope or hokum?' at: http://www.wrongplanet.net/asperger.htm ... highlight=

'What people do for fun.. how the hell is it fun?! !' at: http://www.wrongplanet.net/asperger.htm ... highlight=

Who would dare?

John Constantino has.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/s ... 19796.htm#
do a find on "marriage"

Admittedly his sample is a little biased.

Essentially, he starts with aspie kids and then tests their parents. Turns out that there is an aspie-aspie marriage at a rate of four to one. That's pretty definite assortative mating selection if you ask me.

Well actually what it really shows is that if you have two aspie parents, you have a really good chance of getting an aspie kid, higher than a "mixed marriage".

But every time I read some parent of an aspie kid bemoaning the aspieness of their kid, I wonder about the parent's own aspieness.