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Abstract
Anonymous retrospective data were provided by 3,443 adult participants via computer-assisted self-interview. This was the first study focused on determinants of adult sexual orientation to adjust for the effects of same-sex sibling incest. Five measures of adult sexual orientations (ASOs) provided evidence consistent with the theory that ASOs result from early sex-specific romantic attachment, conditioning caused by early sexual experiences with partners, and other experiences, such as early masturbation using human images, acting synergistically with critical period learning, and sexual imprinting. Early same-sex crushes were the most powerful predictor of ASOs, and they also increased the likelihood of engaging in early same-sex partnered and masturbation behaviors. Incestuous experiences with same-sex siblings affected the ASOs of the incest participants. And, lesbian, gay, and bisexual participants tended to have an earlier onset of puberty than heterosexual controls within sexes. However, statistical analyses showed that the incest and puberty effects were mathematically explained by the participant’s early sexual experiences with partners and other experiences such as masturbation using human images. Early same-sex crushes were predicted by nuclear family variables implying that same-sex crushes were more likely when the opposite-sex parent modeled an unsatisfactory heterosexual romantic partner.
Public Interest Statement
Our study investigated the origins of adult sexual orientations using data anonymously provided by 3,443 adult participants. Evidence from the study was consistent with the theory that the adult sexual orientations of the participants were influenced early in life by the early sex-specific crushes that they had experienced, the early sexual experiences with male or female partners that they had experienced, and the sex-specific images that they had used when they masturbated. The evidence from our study was consistent with the idea that sexual orientations become fixed relatively early in life because they were established while the brain was still growing and malleable, a process known as critical period learning. Our results were consistent with the idea that the sexual orientations of adults cannot be changed and that a person’s sexual orientation should not be use as the basis for discrimination.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interest.
Erratum
This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected. Please see Erratum (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2016.1140948).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Keith W. Beard
The twelve authors are all collaborating researchers in an interdisciplinary, on-going, multi-institutional collaborative project involving six different West Virginia campuses (an area somewhat inland near the eastern coast of the USA, usually referred to as “the mid-Atlantic region”) which resulted in collection of data from 3,541 participants in the interval between 2002 and 2012.
