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A broader cultural view is necessary to study the evolution of sexual orientation

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 8, pages 181–183 (2024)Cite this article

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The causation of sexual orientation is likely to be complex and influenced by multiple factors. We advocate incorporating a broader cultural view into evolutionary and genetic studies to account for differences in how sexual orientation is experienced, expressed and understood in both humans and nonhuman animals.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants of a Royal Society–Theo Murphy scientific meeting on ‘Genetics and evolution of sexual orientation’ (27–28 March 2023) for the lively discussion that initiated this Comment; G. Rieger and P. Vasey for comments on the manuscript; and the Royal Society, the American Institute of Bisexuality and the Evolution Education Trust for funding. For the purpose of open access, the corresponding author has applied a ‘Creative Commons Attribution’ (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Vincent Savolainen

  2. School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Nathan W. Bailey

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Lisa Diamond

  4. Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

    Ashlyn Swift-Gallant

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Sergey Gavrilets

  6. Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Sergey Gavrilets

  7. ISEM, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, Univ. Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Michel Raymond

  8. Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Karin J. H. Verweij

Authors
  1. Vincent Savolainen
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  2. Nathan W. Bailey
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  3. Lisa Diamond
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  4. Ashlyn Swift-Gallant
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  5. Sergey Gavrilets
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  6. Michel Raymond
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  7. Karin J. H. Verweij
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vincent Savolainen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Thomas Dickins and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Savolainen, V., Bailey, N.W., Diamond, L. et al. A broader cultural view is necessary to study the evolution of sexual orientation. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 181–183 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02273-9

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