ArticleNature human behaviour2021
Genomic evidence consistent with antagonistic pleiotropy may help explain the evolutionary maintenance of same-sex sexual behaviour in humans.
Article in Nature human behaviour, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Multi-ancestry investigation of the genomics of erectile dysfunction.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Probing the genomic landscape of human sexuality: a critical systematic review of the literature.Frontiers in genetics · 2023Pooled it
- Understanding the Evolutionary History of Human Male and Female Same-Sex Sexual Behavior Requires a Greater Appreciation of Its Shared Genetic Architecture.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- Drivers of same-sex sexual behaviour.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- The Evolution of Same-sex Sexual Behavior: Using Old Theory to Answer New Questions.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Review
- Confounding fuels misinterpretation in human genetics.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Testing the Mother's Curse Hypothesis in Human Mitochondrial Genome Evolution.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Life without sex: Large-scale study links sexlessness to physical, cognitive, and personality traits, socioecological factors, and DNA.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Polygenic risk scores and embryonic screening: considerations for regulation.Journal of medical ethics · 2025Article
- Confounding Fuels Misinterpretation in Human Genetics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Crusaders, monks and family fortunes: evolutionary models of male homosexuality and related phenomena.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The methodological and ethical concerns of genetic studies of same-sex sexual behavior.American journal of human genetics · 2024Review
- Reasons and Reproduction: Gene Editing and Genetic Selection.The American journal of bioethics : AJOB · 2024Article
- Examining the Fraternal Birth Order Effect and Sexual Orientation: Insights from an East European Population.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Same-Sex Relationships and Criminal Behavior: A Total Population Study in The Netherlands.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- The Desirable Dad Hypothesis: Male Same-Sex Attraction as the Product of Selection for Paternal Care via Antagonistic Pleiotropy.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Fertility of Czech Gay and Straight Men, Women, and Their Relatives: Testing the Sexually Antagonistic Gene Hypothesis.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Polygenic Scores Clarify the Relationship Between Mental Health and Gender Diversity.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
- A broader cultural view is necessary to study the evolution of sexual orientation.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Genetic variants underlying human bisexual behavior are reproductively advantageous.Science advances · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Human same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) is heritable, confers no immediately obvious direct reproductive or survival benefit and can divert mating effort from reproductive opportunities. This presents a Darwinian paradox: why has SSB been maintained despite apparent selection against it? We show that genetic effects associated with SSB may, in individuals who only engage in opposite-sex sexual behaviour (OSB individuals), confer a mating advantage. Using results from a recent genome-wide association study of SSB and a new genome-wide association study on number of opposite-sex sexual partners in 358,426 individuals, we show that, among OSB individuals, genetic effects associated with SSB are associated with having more opposite-sex sexual partners. Computer simulations suggest that such a mating advantage for alleles associated with SSB could help explain how it has been evolutionarily maintained. Caveats include the cultural specificity of our UK and US samples, the societal regulation of sexual behaviour in these populations, the difficulty of measuring mating success and the fact that measured variants capture a minority of the total genetic variation in the traits.
Indexed as
Identifiers
34426668What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.