Contrast Effect

Two studies caught by eye recently, each studying how one gender rates the attractiveness of the other.

How does one sign up for these kinds of studies anyway?

So it appears as if men's assessment of what they find attractive in women changes depending upon the season and that women are more likely to find beards attractive when they are more rare and less attractive the more popular they become.

Both are examples of the contrast effect.  In short, we are attracted to the novel and the new.  We want what no one else has and we discount the common.

One example of this effect at work is the long line of dog breeds destroyed by fashion.

A small niche breed, with a small genetic pool is featured in a movie or television series.  People go crazy over that breed as every family's Darla Sherman then demands to have one.  Opportunistic breeders pump out as many puppies as possible to meet the demand with out concern for the long-term health of the breed.  Reckless breeding amplifies whatever latent problems already existed in the breed and a tsunami of broken dogs overwhelms responsible breeders.

One-hundred and One Dalmatians.

Frazier.

She's not the only one to value a dog for nothing but its coat.

Lassie.

Air Bud (and before that Gerald Ford's "Liberty").

Rin Tin Tin.

The impact of the fad varies depending upon a number of factors: how robust was breed, how organized were the pre-fad enthusiasts, how long did the fad last.

The cleaning up of the genetic mess takes longer than the time it takes to create.  Never a robust breed, the best hope for the dalmatian is good old fashioned out-crossing.  In other words, introducing new genetic material through crossing dalmatians with pointers and then selectively breeding the offspring to get the best out of the old and the new.  Of course inbreeding fundamentalists resist the idea.

Better at resisting the fad as been the Jack Russel Terrier Club of America.  They list on their website all the reasons you do not want to own a Jack Russell Terrier, using preemption in an attempt to reduce the Jack Russell Terrier Rescue business.

Golden Retrievers have fewer health problems are reduced but it'll be work to find one that will hunt.

Eighty percent of the military's working dogs come from Europe and much of the rest from an internal breeding project designed to decrease that dependence.  So much for the working German Shepherd in America.

There is another kind of contrast effect, one that all dog enthusiasts can help promote: the well-trained, well-loved, actualized dog.  The contrast is not just in the look of the animal but how well it works with its owner whether that be navigating about town, hunting in the field, or helping raise the children.

You see them out there and they make me smile, but it requires investments harder to come by and harder quantify than money: time and skill.  The skills are not hard to acquire and the time is not overwhelming, but they are required.

That would be one dog fashion I would be able to get behind.