Canadian study: mother's womb affects sexuality

[Raeven0]

Men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay, but only if the older brothers are biological. This suggests that the mother's womb affects male sexuality, and the degree of the effect increases with each additional birth.

Linky

Professor Anthony Bogaert from Brock University in Ontario, Canada, studied 944 heterosexual and homosexual men with either "biological" brothers, in this case those who share the same mother, or "non-biological" brothers, that is, adopted, step or half siblings.

He found the link between the number of older brothers and homosexuality only existed when the siblings shared the same mother.

The amount of time the individual spent being raised with older brothers did not affect their sexual orientation.

"These results support a prenatal origin to sexual orientation development in men."

He suggests the effect is probably the result of a "maternal memory" in the womb for male births.

A woman's body may see a male foetus as "foreign", he says, prompting an immune reaction which may grow progressively stronger with each male child.

Makes me wonder about the conservative Christian families with 18 kids

 

[Ennui]

Hmm. Interesting. Correlation doesn't imply causation, though, so I wonder if this is really something or if it's just somewhat of a coincidence.

 

[Raeven0]

I would have liked some stronger evidence as well, but I understand how difficult it is to deal with a complex system like the body.

 

[Solaris]

Men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay, but only if the older brothers are biological. This suggests that the mother's womb affects male sexuality, and the degree of the effect increases with each additional birth.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5120004.stm

Not really. It could be psychological.

 

[Ennui]

Not really. It could be psychological.

Depends if you think that homosexuality is genetic or a result of your development.

I'm inclined to think that it's genetic, mostly because it makes more sense to me, and because that way people can shut the hell up about reforming gays to be straight.

 

[Solaris]

Depends if you think that homosexuality is genetic or a result of your development.

I'm inclined to think that it's genetic, mostly because it makes more sense to me, and because that way people can shut the hell up about reforming gays to be straight.

I think it's both.
Psychological factors may not cause or prevent homosexuality, but they sure can cause repression of thoose feelings.

 

[Stigmata]

I knew it! I tell ya, women are nothin' but trouble.

On-topic: I'm going to agree with Ennui. There's a correlation, but exactly what it implies is indeterminate at this point.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

There are a lot of species whose gender distribution in population actually have known effects on sexuality, although more dramatic than this.

Normally, if the herd or whatever has few males, more males will subsequently be born, and vice-versa.

I would suspect that this situation would have the similar purpose of limiting the number of procreative individuals of one gender in a group.
Or it could be a version of the "more females are created" effect, except only in the mental sense since gays are identical to straights except in their unconscious response to sex-specific stimuli.

 

[Jintor]

I like to think you can prove anything with large study groups.