Male Homosexual Preference: Femininity and the Older Brother Effect in Indonesia.

ABSTRACT: Male homosexual preference (MHP) is an evolutionary enigma because it is partially heritable and imposes a fertility cost. In occidental societies, homosexual men are feminized at various levels and they have more older brothers than heterosexual men. To evaluate whether femininity and the fraternal birth order (FBO) effect are universal features of MHP or not, we collected original data from homosexual men, heterosexual men, and heterosexual women from Java (Indonesia). Facial photographs were used to test whether homosexual faces are feminized when compared with heterosexual ones. We found that faces manipulated to resemble the average face of homosexual men are perceived as facially feminized, suggesting that homosexual men are facially feminized compared to heterosexual men, although a

SUBMITTER: Nila S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10358421 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature