#1: Evolution

There has been some discussion here as to how child love could result
from evolution. In fact, it is easier to explain the evolutionary roots
for pedophilia than for homosexuality.

I will quote from Larry Niven's short story "Bird in the Hand"
(one of his humorous time-travel sketches):

"Neoteny is a common method of evolution. We have
neotenous traits ourselves, you know. Bare skin, where all
the other primates are covered with hair. When our ancestors
started chasing their meat across the plains, they needed
a better cooling system than most primates need. So they kept
one aspect of immaturity, the bare skin. Probably the big head
is another one.

"'The axolotl is the classic example of neoteny --'

"'Excuse me?'

"'You know what a salamander was, don't you? It had gills and fins
while immature. As an adult it grew lungs and shed the gills
and lived on land. The axolotl was a viable offshoot that never lost
the gills and fins. A gene shift, typical of neoteny.'"

Humans seem to have a lot of these "immature" characteristics.
Humans take longer to grow to maturity than any other primate,
and the length of time a primate takes to mature is linked to
that species' intelligence.

As several characteristics of immaturity may be linked to a single gene,
it follows that physical attraction to one physically immature trait
may help perpetuate genes that also confer other benefits associated
with immaturity. In the case of humans, this might include
a trade-off for cellular-repair instead of strength, which is why
humans live so much longer than other primates, but are much weaker.

Most important for humans, however, is intelligence. The youthful brain
has a capacity for learning that is largely lost in maturity -
which is why it is so much easier for children to learn than for adults.
I suspect that physical attraction to youthful attributes
is connected to intelligence. Consider, as an example,
if the authors of "The Bell Curve" are correct that East Asians,
on average, have a higher IQ than any other group (save Jews,
where the constant pogroms have acted as evolutionary pressure),
that would square with the physical attributes that we see in Asia,
where women have small breasts, men have little body or facial hair,
and we see a cultural acceptance of child love.

Of course, this does presume that not everyone who is attracted
to physically immature persons is attracted to them solely -
but then, many girl lovers also like women with girlish characteristics.
There are, I'm sure, a number of genes at play, and most probably
we simply have a higher proportion of them than the general public.
As intelligence becomes more and more necessary to success, however,
our numbers are likely to increase.

Baldur