Evidence against a relationship between dermatoglyphic asymmetry and male sexual orientation.
Hall and Kimura (1994) studied the relation between dermatoglyphic asymmetry and male sexual orientation in a sample of 66 homosexual and 182 heterosexual men. They found that more homosexual men possessed a leftward dermatoglyphic asymmetry than did heterosexual men. In this paper, we report a comparative study about the relationship between sexual orientation and dermatoglyphic characteristics, including 60 homosexual men, 76 heterosexual men, and 60 heterosexual women, recruited from the general population, and also from a gay-rights nongovernmental organization, in Salvador, Brazil. Ulnar loops were the most frequent dermatoglyphic pattern in all groups, followed by whorls, arches, and radial loops. A chi-square analysis comparing the frequencies of the patterns in the three groups only showed an excess of ulnar loops in women (p < 0.05) and arches in men (p < 0.01), but did not reveal significant differences between homosexuals and the other groups studied. There was no significant difference between gay and straight men on total ridge count. We found a preponderance of rightward asymmetry in homosexual and heterosexual men, as well as in heterosexual women. Our results do not agree with Hall and Kimura's data indicating that more gay men possessed the minority leftward asymmetry than did straight men. There was no significant difference in leftward asymmetry in the sample studied. The results reported in this paper do not support any relation between dermatoglyphic asymmetry and male sexual orientation, and, thus, any hypothesis concerning a biological intrauterine contribution to adult sexual orientation somehow associated with dermatoglyphic development.
Forastieri
Válter
V
Department of General Biology, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.
Andrade
Cristiane Pinto
CP
Souza
Adriana Lima V
AL
Silva
Monica Santana
MS
El-Hani
Charbel Niño
CN
Moreira
Lília Maria de Azevedo
LM
Mott
Luiz Roberto de Barros
LR
Flores
Renato Zamora
RZ
D000328:Adult; D003878:Dermatoglyphics; D005260:Female; D020010:Heterosexuality; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male