Abstract
Mathematicians have always been attracted to the field of genetics. The mathematical aspects of research on homosexuality are especially interesting. Certain studies show that male homosexuality may have a genetic component that is correlated with female fertility. Other studies show the existence of the fraternal birth order effect, that is, the correlation of homosexuality with the number of older brothers. This article is devoted to the mathematical aspects of how these two phenomena are interconnected. In particular, we show that the fraternal birth order effect implies a correlation between homosexuality and maternal fecundity. Vice versa, we show that the correlation between homosexuality and female fecundity implies the increase in the probability of the younger brothers being homosexual.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blanchard, R. (2004). Quantitative and theoretical analyses of the relation between older brothers and homosexuality in men. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 230, 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2004.04.021.
Blanchard, R. (2018). Fraternal birth oder, family size, and male homosexuality: Meta-analysis of studies spanning 25 years. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1007-4.
Blanchard, R., & Bogaert, A. F. (1996). Homosexuality in men and number of older brothers. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.153.1.27.
Bogaert, A. F. (2006). Biological versus nonbiological older brothers and men’s sexual orientation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103(28), 10771–10774. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0511152103.
Bogaert, A. F., Skorska, M. N., Wang, C., Gabrie, J., MacNeil, A. J., Hoffarth, M. R., … Blanchard, R. (2018). Male homosexuality and maternal immune responsivity to the Y-linked protein NLGN4Y. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115, 302–306. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705895114.
Ciani, A. C., Cermelli, P., & Zanzotto, G. (2008). Sexually antagonistic selection in human male homosexuality. PLoS ONE, 3(6), e2282. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002282.
Iemmola, F., & Ciani, A. C. (2009). New evidence of genetic factors influencing sexual orientation in men: Female fecundity increase in the maternal line. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(3), 393–399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9381-6.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declare that she has no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
The research is purely mathematical and didn’t involve any animal or human subjects.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khovanova, T. On the Mathematics of the Fraternal Birth Order Effect and the Genetics of Homosexuality. Arch Sex Behav 49, 551–555 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01573-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01573-1