Comment on What's the evolutionary advantage of very long hair on human heads?

• Aeao@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  People catch on fire a lot actually. I’ve caught my hair on fire dozens of times. It didn’t cover my whole head on fire because I noticed and put it out. Having long hair and cooking over a fire …. You’re occasionally going to catch on fire.

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  • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    But did you notice because of the smell? Or because your head was on fire?

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    • Aeao@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Smell. I noticed it before it reached my skin.

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  • SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yea in our modern society sure. But not for the last 250,000 years of human evolution.

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    • Aeao@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “Having long hair and cooking over a fire” - me

      Yeah I’m sure it happened alot

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• myrmidex@belgae.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Does the subject’s awareness of the selection matter?

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  • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The premise here was that they noticed in time to not die… So, yes?

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    • myrmidex@belgae.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Ah I misread it.

      I reckon it’s not so much about noticing in absolute terms (to notice vs not to notice), but rather about the smallest difference that smelly hair would make. Amplify that over millions of years and smelly hair has a good chance of being everywhere eventually.

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      • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I dunno. I’m just having trouble conceptualizing any kind of scenario that could happen with enough frequency to cause this trait to be selected for.

        I think it’s more likely that the chemicals in hair just happen to smell bad when burnt. Those chemicals may have been filtered for other reasons.

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