Attitudes toward homosexuals: An alternative darwinian view

Gallup (1995) argued that there has been selection for parents to counter any social process that would increase the likelihood of one of their children becoming homosexual, and he indicated that contact between adult homosexuals and children was such a process. He therefore predicted (and found) that homophobia would be exaggerated where there was perceived contact with children. In this commentary, I argue that this hypothesis is based on supposing that sexual orientation occurs through a modeling process, when in fact it operates via an imprinting-like process. The specific findings regarding negative attitudes to homosexuals can be explained in terms of a more general evolved response, xenophobia. I argue that Gallup's hypothesis comes from a general willingness to view specific aspects of contemporary human behavior as adaptive when there are a number of reasons—all consistent with modern Darwinian thinking—why many of these are not themselves adaptive.