Perhaps the most underappreciated and under-celebrated eye color is the humble brown. But what are
some of those need-to-know facts about brown eyes? Despite the lack of celebratory songs
for brown-eyed folks, there's a wealth of information about coffee-colored peepers out
there, and some of it is downright fascinating.
It's pretty well-known that brown eyes are the most common eye color in the world. But
it's not just common, it's overwhelmingly common, to the tune of 79 percent of the world's
population. The next most common eye color in the world is blue, which clocks in at 8
to 10 percent, mostly present in European countries. Hazel eyes occur in about 5 percent
of the population, as do amber eyes, followed by green at a paltry 2 percent. And each of
the following colors are less than one percent of the world's population: gray, red or violet,
which are seen in people with severe forms of albinism, and heterochromia, which refers
to someone with two different-colored eyes.
Most of the people on the African and Asian continents have brown eyes, and dark eye color
is also prevalent in the Middle East and The Americas, although in the United States, only
41 percent of the population has brown eyes. That's a lower percentage than most other
countries. Finally, there are plenty of brown-eyed people in Europe, although in countries like
Finland and Estonia especially, it's the minority by far.
So just what is it that makes brown eyes, well, brown? That would be melanin, which
is a pigment that's present in everyone's body, except those with severe forms of albinism.
That's the same pigment that determines how light or dark your skin tone is, with higher
melanin levels resulting in darker eyes and complexions.
The plot thickens when you discover that there's no such thing as blue or green pigments in
the irises of blue, green, and hazel-eyed people, according to the American Academy
of Ophthalmology. Rather, those eye colors and patterns are the result of a combination
of melanin and how light scatters in the iris. So blue eyes have very little melanin in them,
and look blue for a similar reason that the ocean and the sky look blue, a phenomenon
called the Tyndall Effect. And green eyes are similar to blue eyes, but they have more
melanin in them, thus the green color.
Just because so many people have brown eyes doesn't mean that all brown eyes are the same,
far from it, in fact. There's plenty of variation in brown-eyed people's irises, and that's
evident just by looking at a wide variety of folks of the coffee-eyed persuasion.
For one, there's singer Melanie Fiona, who lines her deep, dark brown eyes with black
liner, enhancing their depth. And despite the difference in complexion, actress Lucy
Liu also has similarly dark peepers. But even darker are the eyes of model Nyakim Gatwech,
who's incredibly dark brown eyes match her gorgeous complexion.
When it comes to lighter eyes, actress Julia Roberts has irises closer to the color of
a latte rather than an espresso, as does Winona Ryder. That's also the case with actress Natalie
Portman, as well as Jennifer Love Hewitt. The list goes on and on, so it's quite clear
that there's a wealth of diversity in each unique set of brown eyes.
"Look into my eye."
Our understanding of genetics changed pretty dramatically in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
As recently as 2006, it was widely-believed that two parents with blue eyes couldn't have
a child with brown eyes. But that changed when scientists realized that eye color is
determined by 16 genes instead of two genes, according to an article published by The Tech
Museum of Innovation. And as it turns out, blue-eyed parents can indeed have a brown-eyed child.
Chances are some parents already learned that on their own, which had to be an interesting experience!
"Poor kid just found out he's a bastard. How ya doin', Chip? You okay? Ch-Chip? Hello?"
Conversely, two brown-eyed parents can also have a blue-eyed child, according to another
article published by the museum. Additionally, that phenotype can stay dormant for generations,
and later surface when two carriers of the right genes for blue eyes reproduce. And it's
not just limited to blue eyes, either, as brown-eyed parents can also have children
with green or hazel eyes as well. Isn't genetics wild?
Speaking of genetics and inherited traits, heterosexual, blue-eyed men have dating preferences
that are a little bit different from everyone else. According to a study published in the
journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, men with cerulean peepers prefer that their
mates have the same, as they find blue-eyed women more attractive than anyone else. And
interestingly enough, blue-eyed women do not feel the same way as they expressed no preference
for eye color in the study. The same is true for both brown-eyed men and women, who found
other eye colors equally attractive as well.
So what's going on with blue-eyed men? The researchers in the study theorize that this
preference is the result of what they call paternal anxiety, which is when men question
whether or not their child is biologically theirs. Since blue-eyed parents mostly tend
to have blue-eyed children, blue eyes function as assurance of paternity, and the fidelity
of their partner.
"Babe, look!"
"Congratulations, Reg. It's a squid."
If you're a brown-eyed person who is Black, Latinx, Asian, or of Middle Eastern descent,
chances are you were born with the brown eyes that you have today. But if you're a white
person with coffee-colored peepers, it's likely that when you were born, you first stared
out into the world with blue eyes. The reason? When you're born, you don't have an abundance
of melanin in your body, so there's a lack of pigment in your irises which makes them
appear blue. Maybe that's where the expression "baby blues" comes from?
After about six months or so, however, your body will ramp up its melanin production,
and your true phenotype will start to express itself, at least, according to McGill University.
So if your genes determine that you should have brown, hazel, or green eyes, that's when
the change will manifest in most cases. Sometimes it can take years for the change to occur,
even into adulthood.
There's some good news when it comes to health factors for those with an especially melanated
iris. For starters, people with brown eyes are less at risk of certain kinds of cancers
than fair-eyed folks. Specifically, fair-eyed people are more at risk of getting melanoma
of the uvea, a rare cancer that affects six out of every million people in America annually.
Race is also a factor with this disease, as white Americans are eight times more likely
to be diagnosed with this condition than Black Americans. Researchers say that's likely connected
to the fact that most Black Americans have dark eyes. Additionally, since most people
with light-colored eyes have fair skin, they're also more at risk of skin cancer. So while
it's good news for people with brown eyes, that's bad news for many of our fair-eyed
friends. No matter what your eye or skin color is, don't skip out on the sunscreen and sunglasses
to keep those pesky UV rays away.
There's more than one advantage to having coffee-colored eyes, in addition to a little
extra cancer immunity. That's because if you have brown eyes, you are less at risk for
macular degeneration, according to an article in the journal Transactions of the American
Ophthalmological Society. Macular degeneration, which is defined as the deterioration of the
part of the retina that controls visual activity, is the number one cause of vision loss among
older Americans.
The study concluded that people with brown eyes are less prone to macular degeneration
than people with light colored eyes. That's just one more way that melanin is truly magical.
The good news about being brown-eyed keeps on coming, so perhaps having this melanated
phenotype is a bit of a super power. But it's bad news once again for our blue-eyed friends,
as folks with azure peepers and fair skin are more at risk of type 1 diabetes, according
to a study in Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews. Who would have thought that the
two were connected at all? Although, given the damage that diabetes can cause a person's
eyes, maybe it's not so random after all.
Specifically, the study examined the iris color of 281 subjects and 298 controls in
two regions in Italy. Their findings supported the findings of previous research done in
Northern Europe, which had found a link between the disease and a fair phenotype. Both studies
found that having fair skin and blue eyes is a risk factor for type 1 diabetes. Sorry
about that, pale blue-eyed friends!
There's one more advantage that comes with having coffee-colored peepers. This time,
however, it's less about the health and risk factors connected to melanated irises, and
more about physical performance.
In a study in the journal Perception and Motor Skills, researchers tested 82 women and 44
men to see how quickly they could react to a stimulus. The results indicated that dark-eyed
people had a faster reaction time to a single stimulus than their fair-eyed counterparts.
That means that melanin may be directly connected to how quickly people respond to the environment
around them. How cool is that?
It's important to note, however, that brown-eyed people's response to complex stimuli showed
a similar trend, but the study labeled this response "nonsignificant." Additionally, another
study of 206 men engaging in a related task also had similar results with the same nonsignificant
label, so perhaps the jury's still out on this one.
Brown-eyed folks: have you ever noticed that when you go to the bar with your fair-eyed
friends, they always seem to drink more than you? Do you find yourself falling behind when
it's time to order another round? Well, there may be something to that, according to science.
In an article in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, researchers looked
to archival data to see if there was a correlation between eye color and alcohol tolerance. One
sample was comprised of 1,862 women who responded to a national survey, and the second was comprised
of 10,860 male prison inmates. And as it turns out, in each of the sample groups, individuals
with fair eyes drank a lot more alcohol than their dark-eyed counterparts.
"Give me a keg of beer."
This may mean that since brown-eyed people are more sensitive to alcohol, they're less
likely to ingest alcohol to the point of physical dependence, which is a good thing. Gotta love
the extra financial benefits, too, as dark-eyed people in turn would get more bang for their
buck at the bar. Cheers!
Although having brown eyes is a beautiful thing, there are a few disadvantages that
come with having this dark phenotype. For example, according to an article published
in The Journal of Pain, women with brown eyes are more sensitive to pain than their light-eyed
counterparts. It seems odd that eye-color would be in any way connected to how well
a person can tolerate pain, but science indeed confirms that it is.
So how exactly did the researchers come to this conclusion? They surveyed 58 women at
a hospital, all of them expectant mothers, and all who were planning to give birth there.
They divided them into two groups: 34 in the group with light-colored eyes, and 24 in the
group with dark-colored eyes. Their objective was to monitor postpartum and antepartum pain,
sleep, coping behavior, and mood.
After the researchers finished the study, they concluded that women with light eyes
had an easier time during labor and delivery than women with dark eyes. Additionally, light-eyed
women turned out to be less susceptible to anxiety and depression.
In addition to being more sensitive to pain, having brown eyes unfortunately comes with
one more disadvantage. According to a study in the American Journal of Ophthalmology,
brown-eyed individuals are more prone to developing cataracts, which are cloudy areas in the eye
that can cause vision impairment.
The study wasn't small potatoes, either, as it surveyed a whopping 3,654 pairs of eyes
afflicted with the condition near Sydney, Australia. After reviewing all of the data,
researchers concluded that people with darker eyes did indeed get cataracts more often than
their fair-eyed counterparts. But there is a little bit of good news, thankfully, as
darker-eyed folks can take preventative action by avoiding direct sunlight and making sure
to wear sunglasses in bright environments. So don't forget to protect your peepers!
Last but certainly not least, brown-eyed people are apparently assumed to be better secret
keepers than their fair-eyed friends. In a study published by PLOS One, folks of the
brown-eyed persuasion were perceived as more trustworthy than people with lighter colored
eyes, notably in populations with a wide variety of eye colors. Specifically, researchers at
a university in the Czech Republic had 238 people look at the faces of 80 students, and
determine from there how trustworthy they were. Sure enough, brown-eyes won out over
blue eyes when it came to who you can count on when it counts.
But it's important to take those results with a grain of salt, as other factors were at
play. It turns out that the bone structure of the face was also a significant factor
in people's designation of an individual's trustworthiness, so brown eyes weren't the
only trait that was being evaluated. It's also worth noting that the study focused on
how these people were perceived by judging their physical appearance alone, and not based
on their actual character.
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