Fatherhood Makes You Smarter

utne.com:

While recent studies show that pregnancy and childbirth positively alter the brain chemistry of mothers, could parenting have a similar impact on men?

The 2005 book The Mommy Brain documented research by Craig Kinsley and Kelly Lambert on female rats who were either pregnant or recent mothers, showing that motherhood sharpened their senses and increased their motivation and resilience. Susan Kuchinskas reports for Miller-McCune that this same team is now concentrating on fathers. Their research on mice, along with similar studies on monkeys and humans, suggests that fatherhood chemically alters men to make them better fathers.

Read the whole story: utne.com

Comments

[Kessei]

The fathers I know are definitely better psychologically balanced, more careful in their thought, more resourceful, and more self-aware than similarly aged and educated men who are not fathers.

I think the impact is very noticeable in the 25-30 age range.

[Diogenis]

I am well pleased to finally see an article about "fatherhood"!

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

For most men 'fatherhood' seems to be working 6-8- hrs. a week to buy a woman a family life.
How is that supposed to make you smarter.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

That should be 60-80 hours a week.

[papajoemama]

wow! here's hoping you are not a father or husband.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

I question whether the men in these predicaments are really fathers or husbands in any real sense.
I think most of them are like the people who send of charity payments every month to help feed a kid in Botswana. Their actual personal involvement is nearly as limited. It's the reason so many men can simply walk away from these situations. Their family is just another line on their expense account. Easy to understand why you can just cross it off.

[Diogenis]

To buy a woman a family? Good grief.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

But the men in these situations aren't really involved in the family life in any real sense. Any actual family life is entirely lived by the woman. How can anyone argue that they are doing anything but buying a family for a woman.

[Kessei]

"Most" men, and women, still work 40 hour a week jobs. In every single family I personally know where two jobs are being worked, it's because the woman is working, as well.

The idea that "most" men are always off slaving away so that their wives can sit at home with the kids is laughably inaccurate.

[Sean Barton]

Due to time constraints when their infants I can see where decision making becomes more acute, and as they get older the parent, in this case the father, needs to adapt just as their child grows. I wouldn't say that I'm smarter, but I have noticed that my son allows me to act just as silly as he does, much to my wife's chagrin.

http://www.thehamandlegsshow.com/

[z78pb45]

Lots of fathers I know are razor sharp smart but of all the dumb asses I'm thinking of right now that I know...the fathers win hands down. I would extend that to mothers too. Maybe it's the modern family life, but some of the more stupid, ignorant, flaky, depressed, anxious, bitter, and clueless people that I personally know of (fortunately not well) are parents. Maybe it's the exhaustion...but that still doesn't quantify their over abundance of stupidity. I'll even admit that at times my own my parents are as dumb as a box of rocks in ways my childless uncles/aunt are not. :)

[Diogenis]

how old are you?

[potrerohillman]

i am sure this is the reason why so many geniuses remained unmarried or had no children.

[avicenna]

From a biochemical perspective, it is known that men who have children have lower testosterone levels - and high testosterone levels is what makes men behave rather stupidly.

[WorriedParent]

Bingo!

[Diogenis]

what's women excuse for stupidity?

[avicenna]

Kissing men with high testosterone - salivary transfer.

[BowlingForRevenge]

If you possibly think that high testosterone causes aggression you would be wrong...low testosterone causes anger and shortened tempers.
Risk taking though is a result of high T if that's what you were implying
So are higher SAT scores!

Bachelors have the highest testosterone levels.
The levels fall when they marry and with each subsequent child until at age 40 it really drops...that's when they start to get really cranky! Low T shortens a mans life.

It has also been noted that men with high testosterone are better providers financially...and that doesn't mean they inherit Daddy's money but they earn it.

[avicenna]

I'm not disagreeing with you - but your premise would contradict the article. Testosterone does induce more risk taking behaviour (eg. making more risky financial decisions when testosterone levels are high - or after interacting with an attractive woman) - it could have both high payoffs as well as high risks. Intelligence is usually correlated with a more steady hand and wisdom with one's approach to the world. Nonetheless, it is nice to respond to someone who knows about some of this stuff.

[tlgeiger62]

It is important to note that not ALL men are improved by fatherhood. My husband has become my 2nd child. He's the reason I had one pregnancy.

[Diogenis]

??? Or have you become his second mother? What is the relationship he has with his mother? To say he has become your 2nd child is sad and questionable.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Her problem is that she actually has to try to meet his emotional needs. She has been taught all her life that men don't have any, and that we are supposed to be 'low maintainence', not actually people really just machines to bring the paycheck home.
She's finding this is a lie and can't deal with it, and is blaming him for her misconceptions.

[kstuff]

Smarter? I'm not sure. More tired? Definitely.

[ImageCo]

You wouldn't think that from how some dads act a little league games. And from how some of the kids act you might say the stupid apple doesn't fall far from the tree.