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Mention of asexual prevalance on neuropolitics.org


asexual1976

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See http://neuropolitics.org/defaultsep06.asp which links to an article discussing correlations between sexual orientation and political preference, including a small part on asexuals.

2014 Mod Edit - For future reference:

Sexual and Political Preference

The high rates of non-heterosexuality across many species is the source of many headaches for evolutionary biologists. While "homosexual" genes have been isolated in insects with simple nervous systems, the isolation of specific "gay" genes for the complex human nervous system remains highly controversial.

angelina-jolie.jpg
The First Female President? Angelina Jolie, an admitted bisexual, talks of running for Senator

This is probably because heterosexuality, like non- heterosexuality, is an integration of many genetic traits, along with other biological and environmental influences, that combine to form an integrated reproductive profile, or phenotype. This integrated reproductive profile includes not only sexual desire and fertility, but also child-rearing skills, social skills, survival skills, and the tendency to improve the reproductive yield in offspring.

There is some controversial evidence that both male and female heterosexual behavior may both be influenced by the X chromosome, and some theories have proposed that female bisexual/homosexual tendencies may improve the probability of heterosexuality in male offspring. Females have two X chromosomes, and coincidentally were more likely to describe themselves as bisexual, at least in our survey. There is also some controversial evidence that inconsistent male heterosexuality increases the fertility rates in female offspring.

In other words, inconsistent heterosexual behavior in a parent may improve reproductive yields in the opposite sex child, while possibly diminishing reproductive yields in the same sex child. This may even be a reproductive advantage if paired with a tendency to produce an opposite sex child.

But the intersection of genetic, biological, and environmental influences that create the spectrum of successful reproductive phenotypes also result in non-heterosexual tendencies at a high rate. The high rates of inconsistent heterosexuality (estimates vary from 10% to 50% across many species), imply that sexuality has a large number of disparate influences.

In humans, these influences usually combine to create a robust heterosexual phenotype, but this population robustness seems to be optimized when a substantial segment of that population is not consistently heterosexual. In other words, successful reproductive phenotypes, which produce the greatest volume of viable offspring over thousands of generations, may actually be based on inconsistent heterosexual tendencies in the population in general. This would explain why inconsistent heterosexuality persists at high rates in species that are millions of years old.

But what does all this have to do with Conservatives and Liberals? As we have stated before, Conservatism and Liberalism are as much reproductive strategies as they are political ideologies. Nowhere is this more apparent than with sexual preference. The differences between the reported rates of heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, and ambiguous sexuality among our political cohorts are substantial, and pose some interesting questions as to how much sexual preference is genetic, how much is biological, how much is environmental, and how much are people inhibiting their inconsistent heterosexuality via social cues?

Specifically, are the religious Conservatives using social cues to suppress inconsistent heterosexuality more so than the Liberals, Moderates, and Libertarians--or are they really more innately heterosexual?

Rates of Heterosexuality

heterosexual1.gif
Those Reporting They are Heterosexual by Political-Gender Cohort (VL=Very Liberal, L=Liberal, M=Moderate, C=Conservative, VC=Very Conservative)

Heterosexuality is not only correlated with political preference, it is a positive function as one goes from left to right on the political scale. On the male side, the Very Conservatives reported the highest rate of heterosexuality (97.1%), immediately followed by the regular Conservatives (96.4%). The Moderates drop slightly to 92.2%. Heterosexuality drops off substantially for the Liberal males, at 82.7%, and reaches its low point with the Very Liberal males, at 76.5%. (Not shown are the Libertarian males, which had a low rate of heterosexuality, at 82.5%).

On the female side, the Conservatives achieve the highest rate of heterosexuality, at 97.2%. The Very Conservative females are close behind, at 95%, although this drop off from the regular Conservatives is not statistically significant. The Moderate females drop off significantly at 80%. The Liberal females are close to the Moderates, at 81.1%, and the Very Liberal females recorded the lowest rate of heterosexuality, at 71.7%. (Not shown are the Libertarian females, which had a low rate of heterosexuality, at 74.4%).

Rates of Homosexuality

homosexual1.gif
Those Reporting They are Homosexual by Political-Gender Cohort (VL=Very Liberal, L=Liberal, M=Moderate, C=Conservative, VC=Very Conservative)

Homosexuality is highly correlated with political preference, and is elevated on the Liberal side of the political scale. In females, the Very Liberals have the highest rate, at 9.7%. The female Liberals drop down to 5.7%. The female Moderates drop to 3.1%, and the Conservative females reported 1.4%. The Very Conservative females reported 0.0%, but also had a low sample size.

Among the males, the Very Liberals again reported the highest rate of homosexuality at 7.5%. The Liberal males were close behind at 6.6%. The male Moderates dropped to 2%, and the regular Conservative males dropped to 1.1%. There was a slight, but not statistically significant increase in the Very Conservative males, at 1.5%.

Rates of Bisexuality

bisexual1.gif
Those Reporting They are Bisexual by Political-Gender Cohort (VL=Very Liberal, L=Liberal, M=Moderate, C=Conservative, VC=Very Conservative)

Reported bisexuality is again elevated on the left side of the political scale. The Very Liberal females reported the highest rate, at 14.2%. The Liberal females dropped off substantially, at 8.5%. Breaking the trend, the Moderate females were higher than the Liberals, at 10.8%. The Conservative females were at 1.4%, and the Very Conservative females had a non-statistically significant increase to 5.0%. (Not shown are the Libertarian females that reported the highest rate of bisexuality, at 20.5%).

On the male side, the Very Liberals were again the highest, at 12.3%. The Liberal males were next, at 7.7%, and the Moderate males drop off significantly at 2.7%. The Conservative males were slightly less, at 1.8%, and the Very Conservatives were slightly lower at 1.5%. (Not shown are the Libertarian males, that reported 11.8%).

Note that both males and females were more likely to report bisexuality than homosexuality.

Rates of Asexuality and Ambiguous Sexuality

asexual1.gif
Those Reporting They are Asexual or "Not Sure" of Their Sexuality by Political-Gender Cohort (Light Blue=Not sure,Green=Asexual, Purple=No Answer) (VL=Very Liberal, L=Liberal, M=Moderate, C=Conservative, VC=Very Conservative)

The rates of reported asexuality are low, and are highest among the Very Liberal males (2.7%) and the regular Liberal females (2.8%). We had a small percentage report that werenot sure of their sexuality, which was led by the Very Liberal females (3.5%), and the regular Liberal males (1.8%). We also had several no answers, mainly among the Moderates, which we interpret to be non-heterosexual.

Discussion

What are we to make of the disparity in the reported rates of Conservative and Liberal non-heterosexuality? Are religious Conservatives more innately heterosexual, or are they more effectively utilizing social cues to inhibit inconsistent heterosexual tendencies?

All research pertaining to sexual orientation is highly controversial, as is the clinical evidence of the utilization of social cues to inhibit homosexual tendencies. Adams, Wright, and Lohr have provided some evidence that excessively homophobic males are actually more aroused by gay pornography than non-homophobic heterosexual males. However, this hotly debated study has alternative interpretations, so the relationship between homophobia and homosexual tendencies is equivocal.

But as we have suggested in Conservatives, Liberals, and Behavioral Inhibition: A Tale of Two Moralities, Conservatives utilize social cues more than Liberals to manage their behavior within social groups. This might explain why the religious Conservatives are more likely to view homosexuality as a choice, whereas the secular Liberals are more likely to promote genetic or biological explanations with little conscious control over sexual preference.

In other words, the religious Conservatives are more influenced by the social management of their sexuality, and more reliant on establishing immoral valences to non-heterosexual behavior. This would explain their strong reaction towards gay marriage, which has had the secular Liberals somewhat bewildered.

Ironically, while this strong religious Conservative reaction against inconsistent heterosexuality would seem to improve the short-term yield of total offspring produced by a given population, it would also be more likely to retain any genetic influences towards non-heterosexuality within that same population. This introduces the question of which political cohort is contributing more to the retention of non-heterosexual genetic influences, and further, what is the relationship between hemisphericity and sexual preference?

To be continued.

_______________________________________________________

Brack and Zhang, September 2006

Email: Brack@neuropolitics.org
Zhang@neuropolitics.org

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CrazyCatLover

That was a very interesting article. (Not just the asexuality part, too). Thanks for posting it.

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Angelina Jolie for President??? Oh... I don't know about that...

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That was quite interesting. Thanks for posting that. If you notice, there were very very little asexuals who reported as conservatives kind of showing how asexuality is less likely to be repression because of strict morals. The reality is that conservatives tend to be much more "moral" (lets use that term loosely now) and it's seems like a lot of people who aren't asexuals think asexuality is just repressed sexuality often due to strict morals. I just thought that was quite worthy of mentioning that detail.

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I agree with conservative principles such as living within your means but I usually think of conservative people as mainly being traditional married couple, two kids kind of people who think that everyone should be like that, even though that would be a bland, boring world.

Anyone who isn't 'normal' as they see it, therefore, is less likely to feel that way. Being asexual makes me identify with everyone who is picked on for any reason by bigots.

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who writes this nonsense? my god.

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