We may know why younger brothers are more likely to be gay

An immune rponse some pregnant women’s bodi may expla the “aternal birth orr effect” – that men are more likely to be gay the more olr brothers they have * more sons gay *

The more olr brothers a boy has, the more likely he is to be gay when he grows up – an effect lled the “aternal birth orr effect”. They found that the mothers of gay sons wh olr brothers had the hight levels of antibodi agast this prote, followed by the mothers of gay sons wh no olr brothers.

ARE YOUNGER BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY?

“Given that the prote is known to be important synapse formatn, you n see how maternal antibodi might affect the wirg of the fetal bra, and that might expla why each subsequent son is more likely to grow up gay. “The signifince of this prelimary observatn, if n be replited, is that intifi specific molecul the bra that may be important for heterosexual as well as homosexual velopment, ” says Dean Hamer, a pneer of rearchg the blogil termants of sexual orientatn.

MEN WH OLR BROTHERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY, STUDY SUGGTS

Read more: What do the new gay gen tell about sexual orientatn? In 1996, the psychologists Ray Blanchard and Anthony Bogaert published a paper ntendg that homosexualy was more mon men who had olr brothers.

"In [Wtern] societi, homosexual men are femized at var levels and they have more olr brothers than heterosexual men, " state the thors of the study. "To evaluate whether femy and the aternal birth orr effect are universal featur of male homosexual preference or not, we llected origal data om homosexual men, heterosexual men, and heterosexual women om Java (Indonia).

The rearchers examed data om 116 homosexual men and 62 heterosexual men om wtern and central Java.

BOYS WH OLR BROTHERS MORE LIKELY TO BE GAY, STUDY SAYS

Consistent wh Blanchard and Bogaert's fdgs Wtern societi, they found that homosexual men were more likely to have olr brothers than heterosexual men. To be specific, homosexual men their sample had an average of 0. Intertgly, the rearchers also found that homosexual men were more likely to have olr sisters, although this difference was smaller than the olr brother difference.

The rearchers then tted whether homosexualy was visible the facial featur of Indonians. Usg standardized photographs of heterosexual and homosexual Indonian men, the rearchers found that men wh olr brothers were perceived to have more feme facial featur than men whout olr brothers. They did not, however, fd that homosexual men were any more femized their facial featur than heterosexual men.

The thors wre, "Taken together, the rults suggt the prence of a femizg factor associated wh male homosexualy that is partially termed by male birth orr.

We may know why younger brothers are more likely to be gay | New Scientist

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