On 15 Mar 2006 at 13:12, michael sylvester wrote:
According to recent research,a person's chances of being gay is a
function of the amount of older brothers one has.So a guy with one
older brother has a 20% chance,two older brothers 40%, and three older
brothers 60% chance.Apparently after the conception of the first
boy,the womb maintains a memory.And is directed towards producing a
female,but if another male is born, feminizing factors interact to
produce gay behavior.
I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The fraternal birth order
effect is a solid, well-established finding. As I mentioned in one of my
recent posts (and as Dennis Goff also pointed out), the reseach was
discussed on that _60 Minutes_ programme. However, while Dennis cited the
work of Anthony Bogaert, I mentioned Ray Blanchard. Actually both should
be credited as co-authors.
Michael's figures don't seem too far off. Blanchard and Bogaert (1996)
say that each additional older brother increases the odds of
homosexuality by 33%. And "womb memory", as I understand it, is pretty
much what B & B are arguing, although what is remembered, they
hypothesize, is an immune reaction against male antigens.
Also, while Blanchard was at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry when
first reporting on this, as I said in my previous post, it seems it's now
called the CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) after some
complicated mergers of institutions. It's affiliated with the University
of Toronto.
I'm just disappointed we haven't heard from Paul Okami on the topic, as
he's undoubtedly the most qualified on the subject on this list.
Stephen
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF (1996). Homosexuality in men and number of
older brothers. Am J Psychiatry, 153(1):27-31.
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Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7
Canada
Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at
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