Yeah I agree it’s social not biological. It’s silly that fathers think of incest. Ask your daughter. They might laugh so hard they’ll puke. Don’t worry about your daughter staying in the dorm. We might become roommates. We’ll be best friends. We’ll have a lot of fun. We’ll watch football players then eat big juicy hotdogs. Hmm yummy. LOL

This occurred to me as a good alternative explanation that would have nothing to do with incest, but if you go back and read what the study actually looked at, you’ll it was not how often college-aged women phoned their dads in absolute terms, but how often they phoned their dads versus their moms. If they just didn’t have time to call because they were too busy dancing on tables (or whatever) then they presumably would maintain the same proportion of mom to dad calls.

The only confound I can think of is that perhaps women are more active in relationships during these periods and feel more comfortable talking about those things to their mothers about this than their fathers. This could explain the phenomenon in social, rather than biological, terms.

I guess girls don’t call their fathers when they’re in heat because they’re busy flirting with their boyfriends. To confirm this, you could do scientific research or you could listen to Avril Lavigne’s hit songs: “I hate it when a guy doesn’t understand why a certain time of the month I wanna hold his hand” (I bet that’s not all she wanna do) “If I could only say what I wanna say I wanna blow you…” (no wonder she won the Teen’s Choice Award)

Mr. Shermer, if you love your daughter, don’t disturb her intimate moments with your phone calls. LOL