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Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Evolution and Genetics

Video Exercises

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Threat and politics: Are political views rooted in biology?

If you got into an argument this election season with someone who supported the other guy, chances are neither of you won. Maybe it’s not just stubbornness. New research has found that people with strong opposing political views might also have very different physical responses to threat.

Interviewee: John Hibbing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.

1.
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Which type of research design do you think fits Dr. Hibbing’s study? What characteristics of the study make it fit this design?
2.
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Dr. Hibbing wanted to find the relationship between certain physical responses and people’s beliefs. How did he measure their beliefs?
3.
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The video explains what Dr. Hibbing published a paper in the journal Science to summarize the results. Below you see three scatterplots. Which of the three scatterplots below best fits the results as explained in the video?

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Baby Scent and Dads

Even the toughest dads can get warm and nurturing when it comes to their kids. Now researchers studying monkeys have found that’s not just an attitude, it’s a physical response to the mere scent of their infant. This ScienCentral News video explains.

Interviewee: Toni Ziegler, Wisconsin National Primate Research Center

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.

Relationships between parents and their children are complex and difficult to study in controlled (laboratory) conditions. In this video, marmoset monkeys are used to study the responses of male monkeys to the scent of baby marmosets. This gives them much more control over the situation, but is the study valuable for understanding humans?

4.
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What characteristics of human and marmoset social relationships could be used to argue that this comparison between the two species is valid?
5.
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What hormone discussed in this video found in marmoset monkeys is also found in human males?
6.
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The researchers had the father smell his own baby’s scent and they found that the hormone from question 2 was reduced. But how could they be sure that it was the father-child relationship that was critical and not that this particular smell reduces the hormone level regardless of relationship? Be sure you answer based on the actual study as reported in the video.
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Twin DNA Differences

Geneticists are discovering that identical twins don't have identical DNA. As this ScienCentral News video explains, this surprising research could help scientists better understand genetic diseases in the rest of us.

Interviewees: Julia and Claire Calzonetti, identical twins; Jan Dumanski, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.

7.
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Dr. Dumanski says that he and his colleagues are challenging a “dogma” about twin DNA. What is this dogma?
8.
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Dr. Dumanski confirmed the idea that twins’ DNA shows identical gene sequences, but that twins may differ in the number of copies of some genes. Your textbook briefly mentions another way that the DNA of twins can be different. What is the other factor limiting the similarity of twins’ genes?
9.
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As explained in your textbook, twin studies by behavior genetics researchers rely on differences between monozygotic and dizygotic twins to separate influences from genes versus experience on behavior. Explain how the research reported in this video may complicate the work of behavior geneticists.
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The Stud Effect

Romantic attraction is complicated and multifaceted. Any scientist who tried to reduce attraction to one or two simple variables would surely be doomed to failure. What scientists can do, however, is hold some of those many influences constant while focusing on just one or two variables. In this video, Dr. Weiss and his colleagues focus on a few biological factors that might influence attraction—in mice. They leave open the question about the degree to which humans might be influenced by similar biological factors.

Interviewees: Shirley Munoz, Martial artist; Samuel Weiss, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.

10.
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Sexual motivation refers to those factors that activate and maintain our sexual behaviors. This video is based on the theory that pheromones are an important part of sexual motivation in some animal species, including mice. Pheromones are substances chemically related to hormones. According to this video, which sensory system (vision, hearing, etc.) detects pheromones?
11.
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For the research discussed in this video to make sense, two different categories of male mice must produce different pheromones. What are these two categories?
12.
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What was the biological effect on the brains of adult female mice exposed to the dominant males’ pheromones?
13.
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What was the behavioral effect of exposure to dominant males’ pheromones on these adult female mice? How about exposure to subordinate males’ pheromones?
14.
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We should emphasize the fact that effects of pheromones on humans has not been demonstrated definitively, though there have been some intriguing studies and the possibility does exist. How important is status—being dominant or subordinate—to sexual selection in human females and males?.
15.
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How might a human male signal status aside from emitting pheromones?

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