Prenatal Influences on Sexual Orientation | Marc Breedlove | TEDxMSU
Summary
TLDRDer Sprecher erzählt von seiner Kindheit in Missouri und wie seine familiäre und kulturelle Umgebung seine Karriere als Neurowissenschaftler, der Sexualverhalten und Sexualität forscht, beeinflusste. Er beschreibt, wie frühe Erlebnisse und seine Mutter seine Sicht auf Sexualität und Homosexualität prägten. Seine Forschung konzentrierte sich auf Geschlechterunterschiede im Gehirn von Tieren und wie Hormone diese beeinflussen. Später entdeckte er eine Korrelation zwischen der Länge der Finger und der sexuellen Orientierung von Menschen, was er mit seiner Mutter teilte, die ihre eigene Entwicklung in Bezug auf Homosexualität durch persönliche Beziehungen durchlebte.
Takeaways
- 🌊 Der Sprecher wuchs in einem ländlichen, arbeitsamerkanischen Umfeld auf, in dem Sexualität fast nie thematisiert wurde.
- 👨👧 Seine erste sexuelle Erziehung erhielt er auf dem Bauernhof seiner Großeltern, wo er eine einfache, aber irreführende Erklärung für die Geburt von Kälbern hörte.
- 🧠 Als Kind war er neugierig und begann, frühzeitig kritisch nachzudenken, was zu seiner späteren Karriere als Neurowissenschaftler geführt hat.
- 🏫 In der Schule lernte er, dass bestimmte Worte und Themen, wie Homosexualität, tabuisiert sind und strafend behandelt werden.
- 🔬 Seine wissenschaftliche Arbeit an der Universität von Kalifornien, Berkeley, konzentriert sich auf Geschlechterunterschiede im Gehirn von Tieren und wie Hormone diese beeinflussen.
- 🤔 Er untersucht, ob Geschlechterunterschiede im menschlichen Körper, wie im Verhältnis von Zeige- und Ringfinger, auf unterschiedliche Hormonexposition vor der Geburt zurückzuführen sind.
- 👭 Seine Studie zeigte, dass lesbische Frauen im Durchschnitt einen männlicheren Fingerlängenverhältnis hatten, was darauf hindeutet, dass sie möglicherweise mehr Testosteron vor der Geburt exponiert waren.
- 🤝 Die Studie erregte viel Aufmerksamkeit und Kritik, aber auch Bestätigungen durch Nachforschungen und Metaanalysen.
- 👨👩👧👦 Die Ergebnisse der Studie wurden auch von seiner Mutter positiv aufgenommen, die eine offene und liebevolle Einstellung gegenüber Homosexualität entwickelt hatte.
- 🌈 Der Sprecher zeigt, wie Wissenschaft und persönliche Entwicklung Hand in Hand gehen können und wie wichtig es ist, kritisch zu denken und nicht alle Informationen auf ihrem Wort zu nehmen.
Q & A
Wie wurde der Sprecher auf die Sexualität aufmerksam?
-Der Sprecher wurde durch seine Kindheit auf einer Farm und durch seine Großeltern auf die Sexualität aufmerksam, insbesondere durch das, was er als Kind über die Geburt von Kalbern lernte.
Was war das erste wichtige Lehrstück über Sexualität, das der Sprecher von seiner Großmutter lernte?
-Das erste wichtige Lehrstück war, dass Sexualität ein Thema ist, über das Menschen unglaublich unzuverlässig sind. Dies wurde durch die Unzuverlässigkeit seiner Großmutter, die ihm nicht die Wahrheit über die Geburt von Kalbern erzählte, vermittelt.
Wie hat der Sprecher seine Karriere als Neurowissenschaftler begonnen?
-Der Sprecher begann seine Karriere als Neurowissenschaftler, indem er Sexualverhalten und Sexualität untersuchte. Dies wurde durch seine frühen Erfahrungen und sein Interesse an Sexualität, die durch seine familiäre und kulturelle Umgebung beeinflusst wurde, angeregt.
Was ist die Hauptachse der neurowissenschaftlichen Forschung des Sprechers?
-Die Hauptachse seiner Forschung liegt in der Untersuchung von Geschlechtsunterschieden in der Struktur des Gehirns und des Rückgrats bei Ratten, Mäusen und Hamstern.
Wie beeinflusst Testosteron die Struktur des Gehirns der von ihm untersuchten Tiere?
-Testosteron beeinflusst die Struktur des Gehirns der Tiere, indem es die Größe und die Anzahl der Neuronen in bestimmten Gehirnregionen verändert. Dies kann durch die Kontrolle der Exposition gegenüber Testosteron umgesetzt werden.
Was war die Hauptentdeckung des Sprechers in Bezug auf Geschlechtsunterschiede an der Hand?
-Die Hauptentdeckung war, dass die Länge des Zeige- und des Ringfingers eine Geschlechtsunterschied aufweist, der bereits bei zweijährigen Kindern vorhanden ist und durch die vorgeburtliche Exposition gegenüber Testosteron erklärt werden kann.
Was war das Ziel der Studie, in der der Sprecher die Hände von freiwilligen Teilnehmern messte?
-Das Ziel der Studie war es, zu überprüfen, ob die Geschlechtsunterschiede an der Hand mit der sexuellen Orientierung der Erwachsenen korrelieren und ob diese Unterschiede auf eine verstärkte vorgeburtliche Exposition gegenüber Testosteron zurückzuführen sind.
Was war das Ergebnis der Studie über die Hände von lesbischen Frauen im Vergleich zu heterosexuellen Frauen?
-Das Ergebnis war, dass lesbische Frauen im Durchschnitt einen maskulineren Zeige- und Ringfingerverhältnis hatten als heterosexuelle Frauen, was darauf hindeutet, dass sie möglicherweise vor der Geburt mehr Testosteron ausgesetzt waren.
Wie wurde die Studie finanziert, bei der die Hände von Freiwilligen gemessen wurden?
-Die Studie wurde finanziert, indem jedem Teilnehmer, der an der Studie teilnahm, ein Dollar-Lotto-Scratchcard geschenkt wurde, was die Teilnahme und das Offenlegen persönlicher Informationen förderte.
Was war die Reaktion auf die Veröffentlichung der Studie über die Hände und die sexuelle Orientierung?
-Die Reaktion auf die Veröffentlichung war gemischt. Einerseits gab es Anfeindungen und Vorwürfe von homophoben Personen, andererseits wurde die Studie von anderen Wissenschaftlern als belanglos abgetan. Spätere Studien bestätigten jedoch die Ergebnisse.
Was war die persönliche Bedeutung der Studie für den Sprecher?
-Für den Sprecher war die Studie besonders bedeutsam, da er die Ergebnisse seiner Mutter mitteilen konnte, die ihre Ansichten zur Homosexualität geändert hatte und nun glaubte, dass Menschen aus der Geburt an homosexuell sind. Dies brachte den Sprecher und seine Mutter auf die gleiche Seite in der Diskussion um sexuelle Orientierung.
Outlines
🌊 Ursprung und frühe Erlebnisse
Der Sprecher stammt aus einem ländlichen, arbeitsametierten Familienkreis in Südmissouri, wo es kaum Bildung gab und die Familie sich dem fundamentalistischen Pentekostalismus hingegeben hatte. Sexualität war ein Tabuthema in beiden Kulturen. Trotz dieser Herkunft wurde er zu einem Neurowissenschaftler, der sich mit Sexualverhalten und Sexualität befasst. Seine frühen Kindheit auf einem Bauernhof verbrachte, wo er eine Art Sex-Bildung erhielt, als er von seiner Großmutter über die Geburt von Kalbern erzählt wurde. Diese unkonventionelle Erklärung führte zu einer Neuinterpretation seiner Vorstellungen von Sexualität. Später, als er in der ersten Klasse war, entdeckte er eine Kuh, die gerade ein Kalb hatte, was seine Neugier weckte und ihn zu der Erkenntnis brachte, dass Menschen in dieser Thematik oft unzuverlässig sind. Diese Erfahrung formte seinen späteren skeptischen und eigenständigen Denkstil.
🔬 Karriere und Forschung
Der Sprecher ist Professor an der UC Berkeley und hat sich auf Geschlechtsunterschiede in der Struktur des Gehirns und des Rückgrats bei Ratten, Mäusen und Hamstern spezialisiert. Er entdeckte, dass durch die Steuerung der Testosteronexposition die Gehirnstruktur von Tieren beeinflusst werden kann. Diese Forschung führte ihn dazu, die Auswirkungen von Hormonen auf Zellen und Verhalten zu untersuchen. Bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt war er der Meinung, dass Sexualorientierung bei Menschen hauptsächlich durch die heteronormative Gesellschaft und Medien beeinflusst wird. Doch eine Studie über Geschlechtsunterschiede an der Hand von zweijährigen Kindern weckte sein Interesse an der Rolle von Testosteron auch bei Menschen.
🏳️🌈 Die Rolle von Testosteron und ihre Auswirkungen
Die Studie, die der Sprecher durchführt, zeigte, dass die Länge des Zeigefingers im Verhältnis zum Ringfinger bei Frauen tendenziell größer ist als bei Männern, was auf eine höhere Testosteronexposition vor der Geburt hindeutet. Diese Erkenntnis führte zu der Hypothese, dass lesbische Frauen durch eine erhöhte Testosteronexposition vor der Geburt eine andere Sexualorientierung entwickelten könnten. Die Studie wurde in der Öffentlichkeit und bei Wissenschaftlern kontrovers diskutiert, aber schließlich bestätigt durch Nachforschungen. Der Sprecher warnt jedoch davor, diese Erkenntnisse für die Identifizierung von Sexualorientierung zu verwenden, da sie nur ungefähre Rückschlüsse zulassen.
💖 Persönliche Entwicklung und Akzeptanz
Der Sprecher erzählt von der persönlichen Entwicklung seiner Mutter, die von einer streng religiösen Haltung hin zu einer offeneren und akzeptierenden Einstellung gegenüber Homosexualität kam. Ihre Erfahrungen und die Beziehung zu ihrer Gemeinde zeigten, dass ein Verständnis und eine Liebe, die auf dem Herzen basiert, zu einer tieferen Akzeptanz führen kann. Die Tatsache, dass seine Mutter eine der ersten war, die von seinen Forschungsergebnissen erfuhr und diese positiv aufnahm, machte den Sprecher stolz und bestätigte seine Überzeugung, dass Homosexualität weder moralisch verwerflich noch eine Wahl ist.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Neuroscientist
💡Sexuelle Verhaltensweisen
💡Testosteron
💡Sexualität
💡Sexuelle Orientierung
💡Homophobie
💡Pentecostal
💡Sexuelle Identität
💡Hormon
💡Geschlechterrollen
💡Wissenschaftlicher Fortschritt
Highlights
The speaker comes from a conservative background where sexuality was a taboo topic.
Despite her upbringing, she became a neuroscientist studying sexual behavior and sexuality.
Her early childhood on a farm sparked her curiosity about sex education.
A humorous misunderstanding about the birth of calves led to her first lesson about sexuality.
The speaker's grandmother was not a reliable source of information about sexuality, prompting her to seek answers independently.
The speaker developed a skeptical attitude towards accepting information at face value, crucial for a scientist.
Learning about sexual orientation and homophobia in sixth grade was a pivotal moment.
A slap from her mother for using a derogatory term taught her the seriousness of certain words.
The speaker's neuroscience career focused on sex differences in brain and spinal cord structures.
Testosterone exposure can masculinize or feminize an animal's brain, influencing behavior.
A study on hand structure revealed sex differences present from as young as two years old.
The digit ratio of the index to ring finger can indicate prenatal testosterone exposure.
The speaker conducted a study in San Francisco to test the digit ratio hypothesis on sexual orientation.
The study found no difference in digit ratio between gay and straight men.
Lesbians, on average, had a more masculine digit ratio, suggesting higher prenatal testosterone exposure.
The study received significant attention and faced criticism, but was eventually replicated and confirmed.
The speaker warns against misinterpreting the digit ratio as a definitive indicator of sexual orientation.
The speaker's mother, despite her background, evolved to accept homosexuality as natural and not a sin.
The speaker's findings were validated by her mother's personal journey towards acceptance.
Transcripts
I was born and raised in the ocean sick
southern Missouri and a working-class
family with little formal education not
only that people in my family were
attracted to fundamentalist Pentecostal
religion and so if you thought we were
hillbilly thought we were holy rollers
too and both those cultures are ones in
which sexuality is a topic you just
almost never can discuss at all and so
you might not predict that I've become a
neuroscientist who studies sexual
behavior and sexuality but in fact there
were several things about my upbringing
that sort of steered me along this way
first
I spent my early childhood on my
grandparents scraggly 40-acre farm which
is a great place to get a sex education
before I was in school I asked my
grandpa whether the calves come from and
she explained it to me very
straightforward easy to understand
language she said when the time comes
the cow goes out into the field and
turns over rocks until she finds one
with a calf Caruthers okay seem possible
to me God knows we have plenty of rocks
in the Ozarks so the thing to hug me up
with I know the cows they only move
their hoofs in this direction you know
they don't mention this sort of thing it
is that was trying to figure out how the
cow could do them and puzzle but all got
cleared up by and by when I was in first
grade
one morning I went with my grandmother
to let the cows out of the barn for the
day and when we opened one stall here's
this tableau in front of us in the back
left part of the stall the cow is lying
down completely on her something and
from her hind end there is this slimy
blood-streaked trail leading to the
front of the stall on the right and
standing there wobbly legged as a cat
still wet blinking at the first two
humans it's ever
I thought now in my mind I was thinking
the first grade equivalent of these data
do not fit the prevailing paradigm and I
pointed to the cows rear and I said
grandma did the calf come through there
and after about half of me she said no
so I knew she was lying and I had no
idea why so here was my first important
lesson about sexuality this is a topic
about which humans are totally your
rifle and I've often thought that that
was the beginning of my life as a
scientist because you know I loved
respected and completely admired her and
yet she was not a reliable source of
information and and I think that's when
I really started thinking I had this
know decide things for myself and that
they did this I have a very hard time
accepting anything is true just because
someone told me or just because it read
it somewhere which is an excellent
attitude to be scientists mind you it
doesn't make me a particularly pleasant
a friend or spouse because for some
reason people get upset don't believe
anything they tell you I found out about
sexual orientation and homophobia a
little later when I was in sixth grade
my older California cousins had taught
me a really funny who were queer and
it's real meaning of course would
completely over my head I thought that
we had a person was especially strange
or odd and and so I thought it was funny
so one night I'm feeding my baby brother
Claude he's in his highchair I'm feeding
him while my mother is preparing dinner
and I say something to him like oh tada
I bet you wish that queer would stop
giving you carrots and my mother says
really don't say that and I'm not even
sure she's talking to me is that my
little sisters and the other and pretty
soon I say something else like Oh Todd I
bet you really wish that queer would
give you some applesauce instead well my
mother teleport from the same
to the table must have because suddenly
my face was slap and she said she said I
told you not to use that word now the
slap didn't didn't hurt much but you
have to understand this was the first
time my mother had ever laid a hand on
me and it turns out to be the last as
well and so I was in total shock and it
was clear I couldn't even ask her what
was wrong with that word right it'd be a
couple years before I'd find out and I
have to wonder you know did my mother
was she worried given her upbringing and
was she worried that her oldest child
this you know slight bookish an
incredibly unathletic boy might he'd get
contaminated just by being exposed to
the concept and be led down a pathway
that she thought led to perdition
well fast forward 30 senators and I've
been a professor at UC Berkeley for over
a decade already and my neuroscience
career has centered on sex differences
in the structure of the brain and spinal
cord in rats mice hamsters that sort of
thing and it turns out there's lots of
different parts of brains in those
animals that are structurally different
where you can reliably know that that
area will be larger in this sex or have
more neurons in that sex that's really
and what they all have in common is it
relatively simple rule which is I can
make the animal's brain as masculine or
feminine as I want just by controlling
exposure to testosterone if I give the
animals testosterone at the right time
the light typically around the time of
birth then when it grows up
it'll have a masculine frame and if I
insulate the anime from testosterone
early life when it grows up it'll have a
feminine brain and my neuroscience
career has consisted of doing
experiments trying to track this down
where does the hormone go what does it
do the cells here how the cells change
and how does that affect the animals
behavior and and you know I'm having
such a great time working on all these
little puzzles that I never really gave
much thought to whether it had anything
to do with people I wasn't concerned
about and in fact if you had asked me
then why is it that 96% of people or
so are straight I would have told you
you don't have to look any further than
our society look how we all grow up
under the constant attention of the
gender police including my mother
probably yours and everything about her
society is so heteronormative brightness
think of all those Disney movies each
one of which has got a straight coupler
at the core of the line and so there's
no need to think about testosterone for
people well then one afternoon in my
office I read this paper that says that
in humans there's a sex difference in
the structure of the hand that is
present in two-year-old children now
I've spent my entire adult life so far
studying sex differences I never heard
of this one and it turns out if you
measure the length of the index finger
digit - and and then measure the length
of the ring finger digit 4 you can make
a ratio the length of D 2 divided by the
length of D 4 and on average that's
bigger in females than it is in males
and I knew enough about sector misses to
know if the sex differences present
already at two years of age almost
certainly it's there because the boys
got exposed to more testosterone before
birth and the girls didn't it
and so it's Wow so this could be a
retrospective marker that tells me
approximately how much testosterone a
person was exposed to to 20 92 years ago
when they were in their mothers world
well I'm living in the San Francisco Bay
Area where we have almost as many gay
people as there are rocks in the Ozarks
so so let's test some hypotheses so we
started going to screen figures that
fall ask the people please can we see
rocks your hands and will you answer
these questions we have about what
gender you people you like to have sex
with what gender people do you fantasize
about the SEVIS etc and now you might
have thought this would be a difficult
experiment to do to be hard to know
subjects but in fact this was the
easiest experiment I had ever done
because we got over 700 people to answer
all those questions by offering them a
one dollar lottery scratcher ticket
people will tell you anything for a one
dollar lottery scratcher
which is especially funny because we do
the math they're worth about 49 cents
right and so this was also the cheapest
experiment I'd ever done up to that
point because it'll cost you a lot more
than a dollar to get any information
from a rat
trust me so we do this study and we
cathode the data and first question is
was it true about the about the digit
yes indeed on the right hand only we
didn't see it the left though there was
a sex difference that ratio D to D would
tend to be larger in women than in men
and then we asked what about gaber's the
straight man and we saw absolutely no
difference between them so there was no
evidence that gay men had seen less
testosterone before birth than straight
men and to this day I don't know of any
convincing evidence the gay men saw less
prenatal testosterone than straight men
although it's interesting that people
really want to believe that that might
be the case I just don't know any data
to support that on the other hand when
we compared our women sure enough the
women who told us they were lesbians on
average they had a more masculine digit
ratio than the women who told us they
were straight and I don't know how to
explain that except to say that the
lesbians on average must have seen a
little more prenatal testosterone than
the straight lead and I don't know how
to explain that except to say that if
you're a female and you see a little
more testosterone before birth when you
grow up you're more likely to find women
attractive which by the way suggests
that well maybe the reason 96% of the
men are attracted to women is because of
it
dosterone they saw before birth well we
write up the results submitted to nature
gets a lot of attention and you cannot
imagine how much guff
I got about this paper first there was a
homophobic French people strangers would
email right phone me to say I know
you're lying you're gay and you're
making this stuff up to justify your
choice of a sinful lifestyle that's the
thing and even among scientists I think
I think a lot of my colleagues had a
hard time imagining that you could find
out anything important when you found
when you made the measures with a
99-cent ruler right
no no psychic time required and others
of my colleagues other scientists on the
basis of no data whatsoever declared
that this was just a fluke it was it was
empty cocktail party banter and it would
never be replicated well over the next
six years every calendar year there was
at least one published replication of
the of the artifact and eventually
someone did a meta-analysis that
confirmed it and then people compared
twins and that confirmed it and that and
there's been several other publications
that so I'm sorry it's a fact
get used to it lesbians have a one mask
and iterations indistinctly okay now
having said that there's a
misunderstanding better results that I
want to warn you about and when I was
talking about the hands
I noticed everybody taking a peek at
your hands and then there's a little lie
in a joint right here
worry.i there's there's one gentleman I
think I think he's convinced that he's a
lesbian stay calm don't no need for an
identity crisis you need to understand
that because they only roughly reflect
prenatal testosterone you can't tell
anything about a given person by looking
at their at their hands right and and
there's a there's a joke I like to tell
it to sort of get this across so if you
want I'm gonna teach everyone here
how to take a random sample of people
and by looking at the right hand you're
gonna be able to guess their sexual
orientation and you're gonna almost
always be right you want me to teach you
how to do that get your an example
people look at the right hand and look
at your right hand ease now right and
for each person when you when you look
at it pay very careful attention to it
that this digit is longer or this digit
is longer and whatever you see guess
straight and you'll be right about 95 96
it was a random self so you see it's not
it's not a tail it's not a Shibboleth
it's not some secret way of knowing
something sexual orientation and we
don't need a secret way to know
someone's sexual orientation right we
know how to do that you ask them you
make sure they feel safe and that's how
you know well there's a personal aspect
to the story that we didn't include in
nature so I knew that we'd get a lot of
scrutiny for this sort of thing so I
measured all those fingers myself and
and crunched all the data myself in the
course of a long week and when it
happened that my wife and kids were
visiting my in-laws in Vermont so then
so the late Sunday afternoon
I finally get down to these things that
I've been telling them and it's one of
those beautiful moments that all
scientists live for we don't get in yoga
enough of them where I realized just for
a while that right now I just found out
something but no one in the universe has
ever known and it's really a terrific
feeling and I was just saving it when
the phone rang and it was my mother who
tended to call in something evenings in
those days now my mother was still in
the Ozarks but of course she had been on
the turkey too after she retired she for
awhile became a quasi den mother to a
group of young adults including several
people who were gay and who'd been
thrown out of their families because of
them and even though she had been taught
that they were sinful people with
reprobate minds and all that sort of
thing she still got to know them and she
was talking to them to listening to what
they were saying to her and it started
to change how she was interpreting her
Bible to the extent that she's still
going to a fundamentalist Pentecostal
church but now she's arguing with the
preacher in church about whether
homosexuality listen she doesn't believe
it and it must have been funny my mother
the ninth grade
nah ninth grade dropout telling the guy
with the ology degrees you don't
understand the Bible
right I would have loved to have been
there and and by the way you need to
understand my mother adored her pastor
brother Frank and his wife Nancy and a
few years later I would ask him to
officiate at her funeral and it was
clear that he absolutely loved her too
but they did loggerheads in this issue
you know they each tell the other they
were wrong and then both of them would
laugh so that Sunday night I'm telling
her about these results and what they
mean she has no difficulty understanding
there at all and what does she say she
says well I know people are born that
way this was a few years of Courtney
wanted her to Lady gaga she didn't steal
her life and and she said how could it
be a sin when God made them the way they
don't so after we hung up that I
remembered our dispute about the word
queer years ago and you can't imagine
how fulfilling it felt to realize that
the second person in the universe to
know about our findings was my mother
and it was great to know that we were on
the same page about this the same-sex
love wasn't immoral and it wasn't a
matter of choice I've gotten there my
nerdy sciency way you know hypotheses
and measures and statistics all that
good stuff well my mother had gotten
there simply by following her heart
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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