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Same-Sex Attraction: What Needs to Be Explained?

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The Evolution of Same-Sex Attraction

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Abstract

In the current chapter, I will argue that people differ in their sexual orientation, meaning that they experience different degrees of same-sex attraction. Although same-sex attraction is a continuous trait, sexual orientation could be divided in five meaningful categories on the basis of the balance between opposite-sex and same-sex attractions, namely, exclusive heterosexual orientation, heterosexual orientation with same-sex attractions, bisexual orientation, homosexual orientation with opposite-sex attractions and exclusive homosexual orientation. Evidence from prevalence studies indicates that, in contemporary post-industrial societies more than one in ten individual experience some degree of same-sex attraction, the most common one being same-sex attraction in heterosexual individuals. The distribution of same-sex attractions differs in men and women, with heterosexual orientation with same-sex attraction being more common in women than in men, while exclusive homosexual orientation being more common in men than in women. I will examine also the stability of attractions through an individual’s lifespan. Evidence from longitudinal studies finds that exclusive heterosexual attraction exhibits very high stability in an individual’s lifespan, while same-sex attraction exhibits considerable instability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Menelaos Apostolou

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  1. Menelaos Apostolou
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Apostolou, M. (2020). Same-Sex Attraction: What Needs to Be Explained?. In: The Evolution of Same-Sex Attraction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53925-2_1

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