ELSEVIER

Attitudes Toward Homosexuals and Evolutionary Theory: The Role of Evidence Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. State University of New York at Albany

Archer (this issue) contends that seduction by homosexual pedophiles is largely a result of media exaggeration and that xenophobia explains the data I reported on attitudes to- ward homosexuals (Gallup 1995). However, a cursory review of the evidence shows that the incidence of child molestation by homosexual males is much higher than Archer im- plies, and when the specific findings on att i tudes are considered, xenophobia fails to pro- vide an adequate account of the way people react to homosexuals.

KEY WORDS: Sexual orientation; Seduction; Pedophilia; Attitudes.

A rcher (this issue) feels that my account of attitudes toward homosexuals

(Gallup 1995) is "fundamentally misconceived" and attempts to show that the data I reported concerning reactions to homosexuals can be explained by other mechanisms. The major points of Archer's critique

involve (1) the role of imprinting in the etiology of homosexuality, (2) the absence of evidence of seduction by homosexual pedophiles, (3) the role of xenophobia in

attitudes toward homosexuals, and (4) the idea that many aspects of human behavior may not have an adaptive component.

IMPRINTING AND HOMOSEXUALITY It is important to distinguish at the outset between my account of attitudes towards

homosexuals (which in its simplest form asserts that parents who showed a concern for their child's sexual orientation may have left more descendants than those who were indifferent) and the question of what prompts the development of a homosex- ual orientation in the first place.

Received January 15, 1996; accepted February 29, 1996.

Address reprint requests and correspondence to: Gordon G. Gallup, Jr., Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222.

Ethology and Sociobiology 17:281-284 (1996) © Elsevier Science Inc., 1996 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010

0162-3095/96/$15.00 PIi SO 162-3095(96)00042-8

282 G.G. Gallup, Jr.

Although Archer dismisses it as "an isolated finding," the data that show that

males are more likely to become homosexual if their first experiences with mastur- bation occur in the presence of other males (Van Wyk and Geist 1984) are entirely

consistent with an imprinting analysis. What Archer refers to as my "seduction" hy-

pothesis is simply one that emphasizes the role of early sexual experience with a

member of the same sex on the development of a homosexual orientation among

males--a process not unlike that of imprinting. So, even though we may not agree

on what constitutes appropriate evidence, when it comes to the role of imprinting in

the development of sexual orientation in males, Archer and I are of the same mind.

H O M O S E X U A L P E D O P H I L E S

Archer is critical of the role that seduction may play on the grounds that "the sole

piece of evidence" I cited in support of this hypothesis was a study showing that

more than 80% of promiscuous homosexual males admitted to having had sex with

minors (Goode and Troiden 1980). This is, however, but one example of many that

implicate homosexual seduction. Although the incidence of heterosexual pedophiles

exceeds that of homosexual pedophiles by a factor of about two to one (e.g., Cam- eron 1985), individuals in the population at large with a heterosexual orientation

outnumber those with a homosexual orientation by about 20 to 1 (e.g., Whitman 1983). Thus, although there are fewer homosexual than heterosexual pedophiles, the

proportion of homosexual pedophiles is considerably higher than that of heterosex- ual pedophiles. Homosexual pedophiles also tend to be highly promiscuous. Abel et

al. (1987) report that the mean number of victims of heterosexual pedophiles was

19.8, whereas among homosexual pedophiles the average number of victims was

150.2. Because they have more victims, homosexual pedophiles may have a corre-

spondingly greater likelihood of being apprehended, and this might account for their

disproportionate representation among those arrested for sex crimes. However,

recent research by Freund and Watson (1992) shows that even when the greater risk

of apprehension is taken into account, the proportion of homosexual pedophiles still exceeds that of heterosexual pedophiles. Among teachers, Cameron (1985) esti- mates that homosexuals are 90 to 100 times more likely to become sexually

involved with their students than are heterosexuals. Also, the rate of recidivism among convicted homosexual pedophiles is approximately twice that of their het-

erosexual counterparts (American Psychiatric Association 1994).

We recently completed a survey of adult homosexuals (unpublished data). Consistent with the role of seduction in the development of a homosexual orienta-

tion among males, preliminary analyses show that approximately one out of four ho- mosexual males had their first homosexual experience (which typically occurs dur- ing early adolescence) with a stranger who on average was 15.7 years older than

they were. Consistent with the role of imprinting, most of the homosexual males in this sample also report developing a clear sense of their sexual orientation at about the same time that they had their first homosexual experience.

Not all homosexuals are pedophiles, and seduction can also occur among peers. But it should be clear from data such as these that both the incidence and putative

Evolution and Evidence 283

role of seduction by adult homosexuals is not entirely an artifact of media exaggera-

tion as Archer implies.

X E N O P H O B I A

Archer believes that my "specific findings regarding negative attitudes to homosex-

uals can be explained in terms of a more general evolved response, xenophobia."

How can xenophobia, which is defined as a hatred of foreigners, account for the fact

that college students who have yet to become parents feel more uncomfortable about

the prospect of being in the presence of a homosexual teacher than a homosexual construction worker or airline pilot (Gallup 1995, Survey 1)? Certainly most stu-

dents are far more familiar with teachers than they are with airline pilots or con-

struction workers. Similarly, how would an appeal to xenophobia explain the fact that students report feeling more uncomfortable about the prospect of being in the

presence of a homosexual pediatrician or general practitioner than a homosexual

brain surgeon (Gallup 1995, Survey 2)? Again, most students have had far more

exposure to general practitioners than to brain surgeons. How could xenophobia account for the fact that When students were asked to imagine that they had a young

child who was going to spend the night at a friend's house in the presence of the friend's homosexual parent, there was a robust interaction between the sex of the

child and the sex of the friend's homosexual parent in terms of the students' overall

ratings of concern (Gallup 1995, Survey 3)? Similarly, it is difficult to see how xenophobia could account for the fact that males tend to show more negative reac-

tions to homosexuals than do females (Gallup 1995, Survey 4). As the previous

examples illustrate, my specific findings regarding negative attitudes toward homo- sexuals are simply not subject to an adequate account based on a fear of strangers or hatred of foreigners, nor are they conditional upon being a parent.

IS H U M A N B E H A V I O R A D A P T I V E ?

Archer believes that many instances of human behavior may not be best understood

in terms of adaptive strategies. The issue is not whether my "reasoning shows a

readiness to suppose that many aspects of contemporary human behavior have

straightforward and specific adaptive explanations" as Archer contends, but whether

such an approach lends itself to a matter of heuristics and data collection. To sup-

pose that attitudes toward homosexuals have been subject to natural selection has, as

my research illustrates, a number of testable implications. Simply because the data I

collected are consistent with those predictions does not prove that an evolutionary

account is valid, but it does demonstrate the predictive power and heuristic value of evolutionary theory.

One way to think about evolution is in terms of an existential game, where the objective is to maximize one's genetic representation in subsequent generations.

The game is played according to cost/benefit ratios, where costs and benefits are al-

ways directly or indirectly related to reproductive outcomes. It has become increas- ingly clear that behavior is at the cutting edge of evolution. Organisms that consis-

tently behave in ways that maximize benefits and minimize costs will leave more

284 G.G. Gallup, Jr.

descendants than those that do not. Thus, there is every reason to believe that many

specific aspects of behavior (be it human or otherwise) may have an adaptive com-

ponent. But in the last analysis, whether human behaviors are adaptive is not a mat-

ter of dialogue or debate; it is a matter of evidence.

R E F E R E N C E S

Abel, G., Becker, J., Mittelman, M., Cunningham-Rathner, J., Rouleau, J., and Murphy, W. Self-reported sex crimes of nonincarcerated paraphiliacs. Journal oflnterpersonal Violence 2:3-25, 1987.

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Wash- ington, DC: APA, 1994.

Archer, J. Attitudes toward homosexuals: an alternative Darwinian view. Ethology and Sociobiology 17: 275-280, 1996.

Cameron, P. Homosexual molestation of children: sexual interaction of teacher and pupil. P.$3whological Reports 57: 1227-1236, 1985.

Freund, K., and Watson, R.J. The proportion of heterosexual and homosexual pedophiles among sex of- fenders against children: an exploratory study. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy 18: 34-43, 1992.

Gallup, G.G., Jr. Have attitudes toward homosexuals been shaped by natural selection? Ethology and So- ciobiology 16: 53-70, 1995.

Goode, E., and Troiden, R.R. Correlates and accompaniments of promiscuous sex among male homosex- uals. Psychiatry 43: 51-59, 1980.

Van Wyk, P.H., and Geist, C.S. Psychosocial development of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual be- havior. Archives of Sexual Behavior 13: 505-544, 1984.

Whitman, F.L. Culturally invariable properties of male homosexuality: tentative conclusions from cross- cultural research. Archives of Sexual Behavior 12: 207-226, 1983.