My teacher said "Eye color offers no direct survival advantage over brown other than by being different."
Maybe not in today's world where we have glasses to protect our eyes, but 100+ thousand years ago, we were a different species than we are today. Nothing we see in nature happened by fluke - nature *always* selects what is most suitable for survival and replication. At one point in time, possessing brown eyes increased our chance of survival. However, as human ancestors began to migrate to various places around the world, the pressure for selection of dark skin color was not as intense. Particularly unnecessary to human ancestors that settled in what are now the Western European nations, selection for dark skin and dark eyes was no longer necessary for survival. These much higher latitudes afforded different seasons and no direct sunlight like near the equator on the continent of Africa. Since the selection pressure was no longer as intense, genes were more likely to mutate.
If there is no benefit to having extra protective layer on eyes (i.e what brown eyes have), why do they exist when clearly people prefer blue eyes?
Can't speak for all. I don't prefer blue eyes.
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