Facial Attractiveness of Sisters of Thai Gay Men and Sao Praphet Song

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The Journal of Sex Research in April 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1742858Androphilia refers to sexual attraction toward adult males. Androphilic males’ female genetic relatives might offset the fitness cost of androphilia by having elevated numbers of offspring. Increased attractiveness relative to other women may enable these females to marry up the social hierarchy, providing greater access to resources to support more offspring. In Thailand, there is a marked status hierarchy and male androphiles are highly visible – identifying as gay men or as a third gender known as sao praphet song. Thus, a field experiment was conducted in which 208 heterosexual men rated the facial attractiveness of 25 sisters of Thai gay men or sao praphet song and 25 comparison women with no known same-sex attracted relatives. Contrary to the prediction, the comparison group was rated as more attractive than the sisters, casting doubt on hypotheses that posit greater attractiveness of female relatives of male androphiles as a proximate mechanism facilitating the evolutionary maintenance of genes influencing male androphilia. Also, men from rural areas rated the women, regardless of group, as more attractive than men from urban areas, consistent with some prior studies showing rural-urban differences in perceptions of attractiveness.This research was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada Discovery Grant [RGPIN-2016-06446] awarded to DPV