Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation

Procasinator

I was doing some random reading, and I came across some studies that correlated the number of (biological) older brothers a male has to the likelihood that themselves will be gay (from a prenatal point of view).

You can read about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_birth_order_and_sexual_orientation

You can see that the study has been criticised, and other studies haven't found the link.

I thought (merely for fun and curiosity, obviously not a very scientific way to approach such a thing :P) it would be interesting to see if the male homosexual members of this forum matched those of the study.

EDIT: You should only be counting older brothers, not younger.

Reflector

interesting, so I have 3 older brothers. that means that if each brother contributes 33% to me being gay than It was a 99% chance that I would be gay. I hadn't a hope. My brothers have a lot to answer for. Maybe I can sue and get monetary compensation or at least some fabulous new shoes.

Also Procrastinator should the question be how many older brothers have you???

crotalus667

Reflector wrote: »

interesting, so I have 3 older brothers. that means that if each brother contributes 33% to me being gay than It was a 99% chance that I would be gay. I hadn't a hope. My brothers have a lot to answer for. Maybe I can sue and get monetary compensation or at least some fabulous new shoes.

Also Procrastinator should the question be how many older brother have you???

It's more to do with your mother's body

there is a bit about it in this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYMjXucTFaM

Procasinator

Reflector wrote: »

Also Procrastinator should the question be how many older brother have you???

Defensive much.

I meant no malice by this post, just thought it was interesting.

I have no brothers.

Dwn Wth Vwls

I think he was pointing out that the poll doesn't mention the older part, not referring to you specifically. This theory fits in with my family pretty accurately, but of course there are lots of gay men who are the oldest with younger straight brothers.

Reflector

Procasinator wrote: »

Defensive much.

I meant no malice by this post, just thought it was interesting.

I have no brothers.

I didn't take any Malice I was just wondering, as the study I'm aware of has to do with the fact that the mothers body is aware that it has already produced sons and then through a series of different levels of hormones delivered at key development stages in the male foetus a boy is born whom is more likely to be gay. So therefore younger brothers may not matter. In any case I fit the study.

Procasinator

Reflector wrote: »

I didn't take any Malice I was just wondering, as the study I'm aware of has to do with the fact that the mothers body is aware that it has already produced sons and then through a series of different levels of hormones delivered at key development stages in the male foetus a boy is born whom is more likely to be gay. So therefore younger brothers may not matter. In any case I fit the study.

My apologies, I didn't get what you meant at first. Yes, the poll question should be older brothers, not just brothers as younger brothers have no effect.

Thanks for pointing that out.

L1011

Youngest of 3 (in a family of 5)...

Amongst my mates theres two youngest of 3 and a youngest of 4 that are gay also.

jady88

I'm the oldest

Rick_

Damnit, I voted without reading the thing first! I should have voted for 0 then instead of 1.

I have a younger brother, he's actually only 8 and my parents wern't even planning on having any more children, (so in a way, he was a little bit of an accident!)

If he had never been conceived then I wouldn't have any brothers at all, only 4 sisters, of which two are older than me and 2 are younger.

Procasinator

Paddy C wrote: »

Damnit, I voted without reading the thing first! I should have voted for 0 then instead of 1.

I have a younger brother, he's actually only 8 and my parents wern't even planning on having any more children, (so in a way, he was a little bit of an accident!)

If he had never been conceived then I wouldn't have any brothers at all, only 4 sisters, of which two are older than me and 2 are younger.

Well it looks like the study doesn't align well with members here: even without your vote, 0 is in the lead.

elekid

I only have one older brother and he is also gay so that doesn't really give much weight to the studies...

LegacyUser

My mom had a girl first who passed away at a few days old, then miscarried a second baby who they believe was a girl. Then I was the son born, then my sister, then my two other brothers.

Not sure what influence that order had. As well as looking at the nurture/nature balance, I factor in the possibility that I could have been a gay man in the last life (or female), and it's a finger print that may well have stuck in this incarnation too. Who knows?

Should we care about any of this?

MatthewVII

The problem with this poll is that families with 1 or 2 children are more common than those with 3 or more, so even if there is a real association, this poll won't identify it as the numbers are masked by the weighting of the figures.

I have 2 older brothers so i guess that would make me a classic case.

Tbh I imagine social influences and your environment as a child has more to do with sexual preference than hormonal influences in utero.

antSionnach

The poll is unfortunately not capable of giving an accurate or dependable result... anyway, interesting theory... I would have thought that the number of brothers would have more to do with fraternal upbringing and nurture than with any maternal or biochemical influences though... and that accordingly, more older brothers might be more likely to give rise to (at least apparently) straight succeeding brothers. Although it's no meaningful evidence, my own experience is as the sole male, and it would be the case of a lot of guys I know to be either the sole or eldest malel.

dny123456

youngest of 7 here

6789

I'm the youngest of 7 too! 2 older brothers though.

dny123456

youngest of 7 brothers I mean.... youngest of 10 total. I have loads of gay friends who are youngest of their families. I only know one only child.

6789

dny123456 wrote: »

youngest of 7 brothers I mean.... youngest of 10 total. I have loads of gay friends who are youngest of their families. I only know one only child.

Wow, 7 brothers! Come to think of it, I do know a few gay people who are the youngest in their families too.