Why we cannot conclude that sexual orientation is primarily a biological phenomenon.
While all mental phenomena must have an ultimate biological substrate, the precise contribution of biological factors to the development of sexual orientation remains to be elucidated. Does biology merely provide the slate of neural circuitry upon which sexual orientation is inscribed by experience? Do biological factors directly wire the brain so that it will support a particular orientation? Or do biological factors influence sexual orientation only indirectly, perhaps by influencing personality variables that in turn influence how one interacts with and shapes the environment as it contributes to the social relationships and experiences that shape sexual orientation as it emerges developmentally? Recent neurostructural and genetic linkage evidence pertaining to sexual orientation must be viewed tentatively until it has been adequately corroborated and integrated with psychological and cultural models. Moreover, even a reliable and robust correlation between a biological marker and sexual orientation would be equally compatible with the second and third possibilities delineated above. Yet if the third possibility more closely approximates reality, the search for predisposing biological factors will result in incomplete and misleading findings until their interactions with environmental factors are taken into account and controlled for in adequate longitudinal studies.
Byne
W
W
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029, USA.
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D012377:Rodentia; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D014427:Twins