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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biological determinism | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_determinism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:33:12.926379+00:00 | kb-cron |
In the 21st century, the determination of human sexual orientation has been explored. There is a continuum from exclusive attraction to the opposite sex to exclusive attraction to the same sex, caused by the interplay of genetic and environmental influences. There is considerably more evidence for biological causes of sexual orientation than social factors, especially for males.
=== Dating and relationships ===
In the 21st century, incels have applied biological determinism to dating and relationships. Incels primarily subscribe to the "black pill" ideology, which explicitly assumes biological determinism. It argues that women's mating choices are based on qualities such as attractiveness, money, and status, supposing that these factors, especially looks, are biologically determined. It has been noted, on the contrary, that non-genetic factors like exercise and cosmetic surgery can influence a person's looks.
== Nature versus nurture debate ==
The belief in biological determinism was matched in the 20th century by a blank slate denial of any possible influence of genes on human behaviour, leading to a long and heated debate about "nature and nurture". By the 21st century, many scientists had come to feel that the dichotomy made no sense. They noted that genes are expressed within an environment, in particular that of prenatal development, and that gene expression is continuously influenced by the environment through mechanisms such as epigenetics. Epigenetics provides evidence that human behaviours or physiology can be decided by interactions between genes and environments. For example, monozygotic twins usually have exactly identical genomes. Scientists have focused on comparison studies of such twins for evaluating the heritability of genes and the roles of epigenetics in divergences and similarities between monozygotic twins, and have found that epigenetics plays an important part in human behaviours, including the stress response.
== See also ==
== References ==