How rare is it for caucasians to have brown eyes?

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Ynog

Golden Member
Oct 9, 2002
1,782
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Originally posted by: djheater
Originally posted by: J Heartless Slick
Originally posted by: miri
Originally posted by: Davegod75
yeah WTF are you talking about. I think brown is the dominant color if i'm not mistaken

Brown is dominant but since 2 blue eyed parents cannot have a brown eyed child and 2 brown eye parents can have a blue eyed child it seems to make brown eyes rarer.

Assuming eye color is determined by a single gene:

It's not Link
Eye color: The color of the iris. The genetics of eye color are complicated. Eye color is polygenic. It is determined by multiple genes. The eye color genes include EYCL1 (a green/blue eye color gene located on chromosome 19), EYCL2 (a brown eye color gene) and EYCL3 (a brown/blue eye color gene located on chromosome 15). There are clearly other genes that influence eye color. The once-held view that blue eye color is a simple recessive trait has been shown to be wrong. The genetics of eye color are so complex that almost any parent-child combination of eye colors can occur.


Freshman biology classes still teach the old way because it makes for an interesting and 'real life' example of how genetics work. But it's PATENTLY wrong.

:)

This is correct. And highly amusing. Because much like djheater pointed out, it is still being taught the wrong way, as is easily seen with the number of people who keep using this old theory. While the widely held idea on what genes causes eye color are easy for teaching people simple genetics, however it's wrong. Whats even more amazing (or fascinating) is that the current theories on which genes cause eye color, still cannot account for all the cases, like when both parents seeminly have the genes for creating just blue eyed offspring and yet produce a child ends with brown. Also they still cannot explain the cause for why one's eye color might change during their lifetime.
 

i3rYs0n

Golden Member
Dec 9, 2001
1,525
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Originally posted by: miri
Since 2 blue eyed cacausians cannot have a brown eyed child and 2 brown eye parents can have a blue eyed child, even though blue eyes are recessive, it is rare to meet a caucasian with brown eyes. Poll is for caucasians only please.

this is not true. there is more than one gene pair that play a role in the color of your eyes. So two brown eyed parrents (both with medium brown eyes) can have a child with either medium blue (i believe it's possible) or green eyes. And two medium blue eyed parents could have a medium brown eyed child
 

Arkitech

Diamond Member
Apr 13, 2000
8,356
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Both my mom and grandmom eyes changed from brown to blue and they're black :Q

I think mine may be changing too, I used to have dark brown eyes but they seem to be getting lighter
 

Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
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75% of my family has brown eyes. Yeah, seriously, wtf are you talking about dude?
 

miri

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2003
3,679
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Well most of the white people I have met have blue/green eyes with brown being the minority. Anyway blue eyes arent as rare as some of you say according to the poll. Blue+Green 40%. Brown eyes are 43%. Hazel is probably split between brown and green/blue because a lot of people that have hazel eyes, their eyes changes colors from green to blue to brown to light brown.
 

Fricardo

Senior member
Apr 4, 2004
251
0
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Most of the white people that I know have blue eyes, so it's not as uncommon as a lot of you believe. It depends on exactly what white people you're talking about though. I live in Grand Rapids, Mi, where almost everybody is dutch or some other northern european, so probably 3/4 of people are tall and blue eyed. If you polled caucasians from more southern/eastern areas (ethnically) you'd find more browns.

Personally, I'm a bit of an odd case as everyone in my extended family on both sides has blue eyes. Somehow I ended up with one blue eye and one half brown, half blue.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,908
2,141
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Um, no it's not rare. In fact, it's probably one of the most common eye colors.
 

piroroadkill

Senior member
Sep 27, 2004
731
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I have brown eyes.

Quick, but shi t fact: All babies have blue eyes from birth, and it takes a short time for them to develop their pigment.

I had brown eyes right from the moment I launched myself from the womb. True story. Rare, apparently. But I don't know. Never looked it up.
 

91TTZ

Lifer
Jan 31, 2005
14,374
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Originally posted by: piroroadkill

Quick, but shi t fact: All babies have blue eyes from birth, and it takes a short time for them to develop their pigment.
.

Yeah, that's one of those "facts" that's definitely wrong.

 

Babbles

Diamond Member
Jan 4, 2001
8,253
14
81
I have greenish eyes. Mine are actually funky but in a cool way. They seem to change color depending on the light. I remember being in my bedroom and looking in the mirror and having hazel eyes, then walking across the hallway to the bathroom and then seeing green eyes. That was the most stark because it seemed to "change" in seconds.
I don't think it really changes, it just depends on how the light seems to refelct of my eyes. Usually they are a greenish type color.
 

cherrytwist

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2000
6,019
25
86
I have grey eyes. Sometimes they look blue, sometimes they look green (usually depending on the color of shirt I'm wearing :p).
 

cavemanmoron

Lifer
Mar 13, 2001
13,664
28
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Originally posted by: laurenlex
White boy. Brown eyes.

Well i would say I am a white Man,tho. LOL

I have brown eyes,so does my father,3 of his sisters,did,3 of his brother did,
his father,but not his mother;sh had Hazel eyes.

Both of my sisters have brown eyes,my Mom's are blue.

I have a friend who's both parents have blue eyes,and his are brown,and No
he is not the mailmans kid,he looks Way too much like his brother.
 

djheater

Lifer
Mar 19, 2001
14,637
2
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Originally posted by: 91TTZ
Originally posted by: piroroadkill

Quick, but shi t fact: All babies have blue eyes from birth, and it takes a short time for them to develop their pigment.
.

Yeah, that's one of those "facts" that's definitely wrong.

Only because he said 'all'
Being born with Blue eyes is a caucasian trait, though presumably it could happen to anyone. Often it takes 9 months or so before the pigment fills the irises, more pigment is darker (brown) less is lighter (blue).
 

Rock Hydra

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2004
6,466
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Brown is dominant over every other eye color, I believe. So, I guess it would stand to show with some simple algebra that brown eyes would have more numbers than blue eyes.
 

bunker

Lifer
Apr 23, 2001
10,572
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All caucasion:
Mom: Brown
Dad: Hazel
Sister: Brown
Me: Hazel
Wife: Blue
Daughter: Blue
 

djheater

Lifer
Mar 19, 2001
14,637
2
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What I like about threads like these is it proves how very little of the information available is actually absorbed by an audience.

It's striking.