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Originally Posted by fightnight
I'm curious if this isn't just because of the societal view of male homosexuality vs. female homosexuality. If you're on the spectrum (not at the extremes), that means you could be happy either way, and if society is more OK with females experimenting bisexually than with men experimenting bisexually, then wouldn't it make sense to see more of the women actually acting on their urges, as opposed to the men who would be less likely to do so, seeing as they still have a viable option in women and society would look down on them much more? I think this explains difference between the female and male spectrum (although i'm sure it's flawed in some way, and someone will point it out, I just can't see it right now).
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Researchers have used more than self-reported sexual preference to demonstrate this difference in distribution of sexual preference. Sexual arousal studies using physiological measures have supported the sex difference as well. I doubt that others opinions of male bisexuality would affect the physiological sexual arousal of males.
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As far as the question goes, I like Will's answer, I definitely think it's not a choice... I just don't know why it's not a choice. Biological? Environmental? Psychological? Who knows.
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This isn't particular to your post, but how is psychological not biological? Choice versus no choice is not psychological versus biological. Both choice and no choice must be biological (unless we are reverting to Cartesian dualism).
How is environmental not biological? I suppose that environment might be considered separate from biology in the sense of heritability- Differences between people in their sexual preference could be due to something other than differences in their genes. But even in that case, I would expect environmental causes to be grounded in biology - an environmental influence would have to cause a biological change in the organism during development in order to affect sexual preference.
That makes me wonder about what kind of environmental information could change sexual preference during development.
Edit: If sexual preference was so malleable, if a person could simply decide to be sexually attracted to men, I don't think that the human race would have lasted as long as it has.
[Kidding]Men, homosexual or heterosexual, tend to have lower standards in mates, tend to require less time before having sexual intercourse with a mate, tend to require less commitment before sex, and tend to have a greater preference for short-term mating. If we could so easily change are sexual preference, all men would become homosexual just for the easier sexual access.[/kidding]