Island, J. et al.
Research has revealed that early humans were not only sexually active with Neanderthals for thousands of years, but would also commonly call their Neanderthal sexual partners “exotic,” apparently believing that was somehow an okay thing to say.
“This is very exciting stuff,” says paleo-anthropologist Andrew Price. “Our human ancestors’ cultural insensitivity may have extended to levels never before considered. They likely had no idea that, say, telling someone they’re cute ‘for a Neanderthal’ was not a compliment, or how uncool it is to ask if a prospective sexual partner had ever been with a ‘Homo Sapien guy’ before.”
In fact, according to Price’s research, humans who mated with Neanderthals were often not cool about it at all [1]. Several early humans would date Neanderthals exclusively, often in a super obvious manner that made everyone uncomfortable. Over time, Neanderthals evolved to recognize and avoid H. sapiens who decorated their caves with stolen Neanderthal tools, wore Neanderthal clothes, or tried to mimic the Neanderthal’s protruding brow ridge.
Scientists concluded that due to early human’s cringey attempts at mating, Neanderthals developed much larger eyes for more effective eye-rolling.
