Notes
Elsewhere in the article, Barron and Hare (2020, p. 4) emphasize that their hypothesis “is not that homosexual people are […] more prosocial than the population average.” This statement seems to be incompatible with their hypothesis about the shared genetic links between prosocial behavior and same-sex sexual attraction.
In fact, there is some evidence that homosexual men have larger penises than heterosexual men, which contradicts the prenatal hypo-androgenization hypothesis and the gender shift hypothesis in homosexual men (Breedlove, 2017a). Prenatal hyper-androgenization has more evidence in homosexual females than hypo-androgenization has in homosexual males (Breedlove, 2017a, 2017b; Luoto et al., 2019a, 2019b).
For a more extended discussion of “proper domain” and ”evolved psychological mechanism,” readers may consult Sperber and Hirschfeld (2004).
References
Allen, M. S. & Robson, D. A. (in press). Personality and sexual orientation: New data and meta-analysis. Journal of Sex Research.
Apostolou, M. (2013). Interfamily conflict, reproductive success, and the evolution of male homosexuality. Review of General Psychology, 17(3), 288–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031521.
Archer, J. (2011). Pet keeping: A case study in maladaptive behavior. In C. Salmon & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of evolutionary family psychology (pp. 281–296). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Bailey, J. M., Vasey, P. L., Diamond, L. M., Breedlove, S. M., Vilain, E., & Epprecht, M. (2016). Sexual orientation, controversy, and science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17, 45–101.
Bailey, J. M., & Zucker, K. J. (1995). Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: A conceptual analysis and quantitative review. Developmental Psychology, 31(1), 43–55.
Barron, A. B., & Hare, B. (2020). Prosociality and a sociosexual hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex attraction in humans. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2955. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02955.
Bogaert, A. F., & Skorska, M. N. (2020). A short review of biological research on the development of sexual orientation. Hormones and Behavior, 119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104659.
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, 115(2), 302–306. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705895114.
Breedlove, S. M. (2017a). Prenatal influences on human sexual orientation: Expectations versus data. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(6), 1583–1592. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0904-2.
Breedlove, S. M. (2017b). Response to commentaries [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46(6), 1625–1629.
Camperio Ciani, A., Battaglia, U., Cesare, L., Camperio Ciani, G., & Capiluppi, C. (2018). Possible balancing selection in human female homosexuality. Human Nature, 29(1), 14–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-017-9309-8.
Cortés-Ortiz, L., Roos, C., & Zinner, D. (2019). Introduction to special issue on primate hybridization and hybrid zones. International Journal of Primatology, 40(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-019-00076-z.
Cuerda-Galindo, E., López-Muñoz, F., Krischel, M., & Ley, A. (2017). Study of deaths by suicide of homosexual prisoners in Nazi Sachsenhausen concentration camp. PLoS ONE, 12(4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176007.
Dickins, T. E., & Rahman, Q. (2020). Ancestral primacy of same-sex sexual behaviour does not explain its stable prevalence in modern populations [Commentary]. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1187-5.
Figueredo, A. J., Fernandes, H. B., & Peñaherrera-Aguirre, M. (2019). Do the predictors of atypical sexual orientations in women generalize across different evolutionary tests? [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(5), 1325–1328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1338-9.
Ganna, A., Verweij, K. J. H., Nivard, M. G., Maier, R., Wedow, R., Busch, A. S., … Zietsch, B. P. (2019). Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior. Science, 365(6456). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693.
Gavrilets, S., Friberg, U., & Rice, W. R. (2018). Understanding homosexuality: Moving on from patterns to mechanisms [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(1), 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1092-4.
Harris, A., Bewley, S., & Meads, C. (2020). Sex hormone levels in lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual women: Systematic review and exploratory meta-analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01717-8.
Kanazawa, S. (2017). Possible evolutionary origins of human female sexual fluidity. Biological Reviews, 92(3), 1251–1274. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12278.
Lippa, R. A. (2005). Sexual orientation and personality. Annual Review of Sex Research, 16, 119–153.
Lippa, R. A. (2008). Sex differences and sexual orientation differences in personality: Findings from the BBC internet survey. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 173–187.
Lippa, R. A. (2020). Interest, personality, and sexual traits that distinguish heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual individuals: Are there two dimensions that underlie variations in sexual orientation? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(2), 607–622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01643-9.
Luoto, S. (2020). Sex differences in people and things orientation are reflected in sex differences in academic publishing. Journal of Informetrics, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2020.101021.
Luoto, S., Krams, I., & Rantala, M. J. (2019a). A life history approach to the female sexual orientation spectrum: Evolution, development, causal mechanisms, and health. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(5), 1273–1308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1261-0.
Luoto, S., Krams, I., & Rantala, M. J. (2019b). Response to Commentaries: Life history evolution, causal mechanisms, and female sexual orientation [Commentary]. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(5), 1335–1347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-1439-0.
Nila, S., Barthes, J., Crochet, P. A., Suryobroto, B., & Raymond, M. (2018). Kin selection and male homosexual preference in Indonesia. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(8), 2455–2465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1202-y.
Rahman, Q., & Wilson, G. D. (2003). Born gay? The psychobiology of human sexual orientation. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(8), 1337–1382.
Rahman, Q., Xu, Y., Lippa, R. A., & Vasey, P. L. (2020). Prevalence of sexual orientation across 28 nations and its association with gender equality, economic development, and individualism. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49, 595–606. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01590-0.
Sánchez-Quinto, F., Botigué, L. R., Civit, S., Arenas, C., Ávila-Arcos, M. C., Bustamante, C. D., … Lalueza-Fox, C. (2012). North African populations carry the signature of admixture with Neandertals. PLoS ONE, 7(10), e47765. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047765.
Savolainen, V., & Hodgson, J. A. (2016). Evolution of homosexuality. In T. Shackelford & V. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Sperber, D., & Hirschfeld, L. A. (2004). The cognitive foundations of cultural stability and diversity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(1), 40–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2003.11.002.
Swift-Gallant, A. (2019). Individual differences in the biological basis of androphilia in mice and men. Hormones and Behavior, 111, 23–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.12.006.
Swift-Gallant, A., & Breedlove, S. M. (2019). Neuroendocrine influences on human sexuality. Oxford research encyclopedia of neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264086.013.250.
Swift-Gallant, A., Coome, L. A., Aitken, M., Monks, D. A., & Vanderlaan, D. P. (2019). Evidence for distinct biodevelopmental influences on male sexual orientation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116, 12787–12792. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1809920116.
Terry, J. (1990). Lesbians under the medical gaze: Scientists search for remarkable differences. The Journal of Sex Research, 27(3), 317–339.
World Bank statistics. (2020). Population density (people per sq. km of land area) [Internet database]. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST. Retrieved on May 14, 2020.
Xu, Y., Norton, S., & Rahman, Q. (2017). Sexual orientation and neurocognitive ability: A meta-analysis in men and women. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 83, 691–696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.06.014.
Zheng, L., Lippa, R. A., & Zheng, Y. (2011). Sex and sexual orientation differences in personality in China. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 533–541.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Markus J. Rantala for comments on an earlier draft.
Funding
This research was supported by a grant from Emil Aaltonen Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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
Luoto, S. Did Prosociality Drive the Evolution of Homosexuality?. Arch Sex Behav 49, 2239–2244 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01749-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01749-0