6 amazing facts about people with green eyes

The look of a person is the first thing we pay attention to when we interact with her for the first time. It is something instinctive: our eyes will meet those of the other to, from that point of visual reference, connect with the emotions and feelings that the other ex.

Considering that, It is normal to be noticed by people with green eyes . Such a small part of the face is able to draw so much attention that it is common to see fathers and mothers calculate the chances of having offspring with this trait.

But green eyes are not only pure aesthetics, because they are also fascinating in other aspects.

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Curious facts about people with green eyes

Below you can find what are the characteristics of people with green eyes that make this feature so mysterious and fascinating.

1. The hue of the iris is one of the rarest

It is estimated that only 2% of the world population has green eyes , which means that only those with scarlet, black or red eyes are less numerous. This may be due to several reasons.

On the one hand, it is quite possible that only a sufficient number of people with green eyes appeared in relatively recent times, a few thousand years ago, which means that they did not have time to mix a lot with DNA chains of all human beings . It is estimated that the mutation that produced this feature appeared in tribes of central or northern Europe sometime during the Bronze Age .

On the other, the chances of having a boy or girl with green eyes only exceed 50% if both parents also have that trait. If only one of them has it, they fall below 40%.

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2. This feature appeared for the first time in Europe

In addition to the unusualness of this feature, it is estimated that More than half of people with green eyes live in Europe . Hungary and especially Iceland are the places where this physical feature is most abundant. Outside this continent, some ethnic groups belonging to the Indo-Iranian zone also present high concentrations of people with green eyes, although it is not known if they have a common ancestor or the gene responsible for that tonality appeared in isolation in Asia.

Even more rare cases with green-eyed families can be found in some areas of North Africa traditionally occupied by the Berber ethnic group, such as the Rif region in Morocco, Kabylia in Algeria, and Liquian in China.

3. Green irises take months to appear

Interestingly, it is extremely rare that newborn babies already have green eyes. Usually, those who get to have them that color do so after completing their first year of life , and the day of the delivery they have them blue or grayish. It is believed that this is due to a certain genetic propensity that the melanin in the eyes be distributed according to specific development rhythms.

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4. They have the most attractive eye color

Most studies based on questionnaires show that, at least for Western society, the green eyes are the most aesthetic and attractive being those of blue tonality in second place. Perhaps the fact that they are rare can influence this, since the law of scarcity tells us that we tend to value more that which is difficult to find.

5. Its coloring is not due to the pigments of the iris

Although it seems strange, people with green eyes do not have them of that color because they have pigments of those tonalities located in those membranes. In fact, the amount of melanin, the substance that gives color to parts of the body, is relatively low compared to those who have dark irises. If we had to attribute a color to the iris, it would be more similar to yellow .

What happens is that the shape of the eye and the lens effect that it produces cause certain wavelengths of light to leak when passing through this organ. It is similar to what happens when sunlight enters the atmosphere, making the sky appear blue or pink depending on the distance to which the sun is at every moment of the day.

6. In the past they were discriminated

Although today it is considered an attractive feature, there were moments in history in which the rare and mysterious character of this tonality was what drew the most attention. Due, many women were considered suspicious of being witches if they had green eyes. If to this the presence of red hair was added to him, the combination could lead to the execution easily.

Bibliographic references:

• Frost, P. (2011).«Why Europeans have hair and colors of so many colors?» (Cogweb.ucla.edu) (in English). Comunation Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.
• White, D., Rabago-Smith, M. (2011). Genotype-phenotype associations and humaneye color. Journal of Human Genetics.