# Why do people with LESS sunlight have more reflective skin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-with-less-sunlight-have-more-reflective-skin/764931 "2016-09-03T20:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-with-less-sunlight-have-more-reflective-skin/764931/1 "2016-09-03T20:44:26Z")
So I get the fact that skin color is largely an evolutionary response to avoid the effects of harsh sunlight at more equatorial latitudes and the need to produce more vitamin D at more arctic latitudes but ISTM that light skin color absorbs less light than fark skin color. Shouldn’t Northern Europeans have darker skin to absorb more sunlight and the Africans have lighter skin to reflect sunlight? I’m sure there is an simple easy answer. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-with-less-sunlight-have-more-reflective-skin/764931/2 "2016-09-03T20:49:28Z")
I don’t think it’s attributable to heat regulation, it’s because melanin is protective against solar UV. ETA: per Wiki, it may be lability of folate under UV rather than just melanoma risk. > **[Dark skin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_skin)** > > Dark skin is a type of human skin color that is rich in melanin pigments. People with very dark skin are often referred to as "black people", although this usage can be ambiguous in some countries where it is also used to specifically refer to different ethnic groups or populations. > The evolution of dark skin is believed to have begun around 1.2 million years ago, in light-skinned early hominid species after they moved from the equatorial rainforest to the sunny savannas. In the heat of the s... ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-with-less-sunlight-have-more-reflective-skin/764931/3 "2016-09-03T20:54:24Z")
UV penetrates the skin to (eventually) help form Vitamin D. Melanin blocks the entry of UV. At a latitude with little sun, people have less melanin to let more sunlight/UV in. In bright-sun areas, they have more melanin to block the UV - I’d assume to keep Vitamin D production from being excessive. All I know for sure is that here in Nwingland, most people over 40 or so who don’t drink a lot of milk and eat dairy products have to take Vitamin D supplements. I assume the problem is more pronounced for those with darker skin. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-with-less-sunlight-have-more-reflective-skin/764931/4 "2016-09-03T21:30:03Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Shouldn’t Northern Europeans have darker skin to absorb more sunlight and the Africans have lighter skin to reflect sunlight? I’m sure there is an simple easy answer. As said, dark skin is caused by melanin which protects against ultraviolet and importantly, melanin works by\* absorbing\* light rather than reflecting it. Therefore, human skin adapted to strong sunlight is brown-to-black. And even that is almost a side effect; we can’t actually _see_ ultraviolet, so it’s just luck that melanin happens to be dark in both visible light and UV.