Study: Sexual Desire is in Your Genes

[Deepak]

Link

Your sexual desire or lack thereof could be in your genes, scientists announced today. The discovery might change how psychologists view sexuality.

The researchers found that individual differences in human sexual desire can be attributed to genetic variations. The study is the first to provide data to show that common variations in the sequence of DNA impact on sexual desire, arousal and function, the researchers said.

The scientists, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students' self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function. They found a correlation between variants in a gene called the D4 receptor and the students' self-reports on sexuality.

The results suggest that low sexual desire might be a normal biological condition rather than a psychological problem, the researchers say. Further, it might be possible to develop drugs to alter sexual desire based on the new findings.

The research was led by Richard Ebstein and was published in the online version of the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Really I have to say thats pretty fkn obvious. Sometimes Im amazed by stupidity such as this.
Why people only can accept variation in physical traits such as eye colour etc being controlled by genes and yet are so completely hostile to anything else, especially sexuality in its many forms being controlled by genes staggers me.

 

[MuFu]

My sexual desire is in my jeans.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

as if that weren't blatently obvious when one looks around at the various 'flavors' of people out there....masculine looking females, efeminate looking guys, girly girls, manly men, those types you can just tell have NO desire to get laid, complete rejects, everything in between.

biochemical recipe no doubt. now if we could figure out a way to downsize the 'expert' population, perhaps the sheeple would learn to think for themselves.

we really should get away from allowing xtians to do our natural selection for us.

 

[Urian]

I am a TS person and my sex drive has changed after 18 months of treatment thanks to the high amount of estrogens in blood that I have.

 

[_xxx_]

It is partly in the genes. The other part of it is "trained" over the course of your life. The genes can give you the predisposition, but the upbringing and the circumstances are what counts more in the end IMHO.

 

[NANOTEC]

Yep in psychology, the other part is known as conditioning.

 

[_xxx_]

Yup, "conditioning" is a better word.

 

[Zaphod]

Hang on a bit...

Wait...! You guys are saying that both genetics and environment influences who reproduce (i.e. engage in sexual relations) with who? That is quite the novel thought.

To really go mainstream with that idea I think the researchers need some catchy name, though.

I nominate 'evolution'.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

xxx so you think if gay couples raise kids they have adopted they are more likely to become gay?
Personally I doubt it very much, and I would like so see some research to debunk that particular myth.

 

[Cartoon Corpse]

Yup, "conditioning" is a better word.

well i don't know about the sheeple. but I ONLY have sex when I want to. no amount of persuasion from a fat,ugly,masculine chick (or otherwise) is gonna condition me. ESPECIALLY psychological babble.

now if i had been afforded the opportunity to learn TRUTH with regard to this issue as early as possible, things may have been different. but that's not 'conditioning' that EDUCATION.

 

[doob]

My sexual desire is in my jeans.

Mine are actually in the opposite sex.

 

[John Reynolds]

My sexual desire is in my jeans.

Mine too.

 

[Geo]

Mine too.

Your sexual desire is in MuFu's jeans? TMI, dude!

 

[LunchBox]

My sexual desire is in my jeans.

LOL!!!

quite true on my case as well.

 

[John Reynolds]

Your sexual desire is in MuFu's jeans? TMI, dude!

Hey, there's 2 ways of interpreting my post. I can't help that you chose the more ribald of the two.

 

[_xxx_]

xxx so you think if gay couples raise kids they have adopted they are more likely to become gay?
Personally I doubt it very much, and I would like so see some research to debunk that particular myth.

I never said that, I'm talking about the subliminal influences and emotional development of a person throughout the childhood - that stuff will influence the perception and the thinking.

In your example, I think the sexual preferences of the parents are irrelevant, except that the kid might be more open-minded and tolerant. It might as well be that other kids at school will mock him so much that he'll develop some kind of "toxic" shame and start hating his parents for being gay for example. Can't say something like that in advance, too many variables.

What I mean is the low-level, subconcious influence of the simple things in everyday life, like good/bad experiences with the opposite sex, moral/religious issues, emotional binds, social life, etc. Everything we do or see influences us in some way, good or bad.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

So are you more saying it influences things like how they like sex etc, rather than what they choose to have sex with generally?

 

[_xxx_]

A cheap analogy here in addition to the post above: having the right genes for developing huge muscles won't lead to the development of such automatically. Someone with "good" muscle genes and no training will have less muscles than someone with "worse" genes but enough proper training.

 

[_xxx_]

So are you more saying it influences things like how they like sex etc, rather than what they choose to have sex with generally?

Well, both. I'm not limiting this to sex, see last post.