6 surprising facts about people with green eyes.

It's one of the strangest eye colors, and it's surrounded by a lot of curious facts.

A person's gaze is the first thing we pay attention to when we interact with them for the first time. It is something instinctive: our eyes go to meet those of the other to, from that visual reference point, connect with the emotions and feelings that the other ex.

With that in mind, it is normal that people with green eyes attract our attention.. Such a small part of the face is able to attract so much attention that it is common to see fathers and mothers calculate the chances of having offspring with this feature.

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

Curious facts about people with green eyes

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

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

It is estimated that only about 2% of the world's population has green eyesThis 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 much with the DNA strands of all human beings. It is estimated that the mutation which produced this characteristic appeared in tribes in central or northern Europe sometime during the Bronze Age..

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

2. This trait first appeared in Europe

In addition to the rarity of this trait, it is estimated that more than half of the people with green eyes live in Europe.. Hungary and especially Iceland are the places where this physical trait is most abundant. Outside this continent, some ethnic groups belonging to the Indo-Iranian area also have high concentrations of people with green eyes, although it is not clear whether they have a common ancestor or whether the gene responsible for this shade appeared in isolation in Asia.

Even rarer cases of green-eyed families are found in some areas of North Africa traditionally occupied by the Berber ethnic group, such as the Rif region in Morocco, Kabylia in Algeria, or Liquian in China.

3. Green irises take months to appear

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

4. They have the most attractive eye color

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

5. Their coloring is not due to iris pigments.

Although it may seem strange, people with green eyes do not have green eyes because they have pigments of these shades located in these membranes. In fact, the amount of melanin, the substance that gives color to body parts, is relatively low compared to those with dark irises. If we were 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 it produces cause certain wavelengths of light to be filtered as they pass through this organ. This is similar to what happens when sunlight enters the atmosphere, making the sky appear blue or pink depending on how far away the sun is at any given time of the day.

6. In the past they were discriminated against

Although today it is considered an attractive feature, there were times in history when the rare and mysterious nature of this hue was what attracted the most attention. As a result, many women were many women were suspected of being witches if they had green eyes. if they had green eyes. If this was coupled with the presence of red hair, the combination could easily lead to execution.

Bibliographical references:

• Frost, P. (2011). "Why do Europeans have so many colored hair and eyes?" (cogweb.ucla.edu) (in English). Communication Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.
• White, D., Rabago-Smith, M. (2011). Genotype-phenotype associations and humaneye color. Journal of Human Genetics.