The androphilic pattern that we found is about females who increase their reproductive value to attract the best males,' Camperio Ciani told Life's Little Mysteries. 'High fecundity, that means having more babies, is not about pleasure in sex, nor is it about promiscuity. Rather than making women more attracted to men, the 'gay man gene' appears to make these women more attractive to men. But after investigating the characteristics of 161 female maternal relatives of homosexual and heterosexual men, the researchers have adjusted their hypothesis. Previously, the Italian researchers suggested that the 'gay man gene' might simply increase androphilia, or attraction to men, thereby making the males who possess the gene homosexual and the females who possess it more promiscuous.
But how might the 'gay man gene' make females more reproductively successful? A new study by Camperio Ciani and his team addresses the question for the first time.
