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This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary origins of same-sex attraction, evaluating multiple existing evolutionary theories. It combines empirical findings with theoretical arguments in order to review evidence on the prevalence rates of same-sex attraction and determine its genetic and environmental basis.
Among the topics addressed:
- Attitudes towards same-sex attraction across human history
- Assessing the weak selection pressures hypothesis of attraction
- Assessing the male choice hypothesis of attraction
- Evolution of same-sex attraction in men versus women
The Evolution of Same-Sex Attraction will be of interest to academics and students of evolutionary and psychological sciences, filling a gap in literature on the origins of specifically same-sex attraction.
List of contents
Chapter 1: What is to be explained?.- Chapter 2: The genetic basis of same-sex attraction.- Chapter 3: Environmental factors affecting same-sex attraction.- Chapter 4: Evolutionary theories on same-sex attraction.- Chapter 5: Same-sex attraction in human history: Classical Greece, Imperial Rome and Christian Europe.- Chapter 6: Same-sex attraction in human history: Central and South America, Islamic world, and Asia.- Chapter 7: Assessing the evidence from the historical record.- Chapter 8: The Weak Selection Pressures Hypothesis.- Chapter 9: The weak selection pressures hypothesis: Regulation of mating, male-male competition and social consequences.- Chapter 10: The weak selection pressures hypothesis: Male-tolerance, forced sex and desire to have children.- Chapter 11: The male choice hypothesis.- Chapter 12: Assessing the male choice hypothesis.- Chapter 13: Positive selection on male homosexuality.- Chapter 14: The evolution of same-sex attraction in men and women.
About the author
Dr Menelaos Apostolou is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. He was born in Athens, Greece and he completed his post-graduate and graduate studies in the United Kingdom. He has published several peer-reviewed papers, books and chapters in books in the area of evolutionary psychology.
