Researchers conclude that bisexuality in males is a real thing

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S. and the U.K. has found what they describe as evidence of male bisexuality. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their meta-study reviewing multiple other studies of male bisexuality and what they learned from it.

For many years, there has been skepticism among the general population and among researchers that male bisexuality is something that actually exists—skeptics contend that men are either straight or gay, there is no grey area. Some have even suggested that men claiming to be bisexual are actually gay men trying to minimize their gayness. Such skepticism has flown in the face of claims by many men over many years who have adamantly insisted that they are bisexual.

Interestingly, many skeptics of male bisexuality have also suggested that female bisexuality is a real thing—some women really can be sexually attracted to people of either gender. It is not clear why there has been such skepticism regarding male bisexuality or why female bisexuality is more easily accepted. To find the truth, many teams over many years have the conducted studies designed to find the answer. Most such studies involved asking male volunteers to endure devices attached to their penises to determine whether they are truly aroused as they watch both males and females behave erotically on film. In this new effort, the researchers sought to settle the matter once and for all by studying all known previous experiments involving the study of male bisexuality to see if there was a consensus.

The researchers found that overall prior research has shown that male bisexuality truly is a real phenomenon. Some men truly are sexually aroused by people of either gender. They also confirmed the claim by bisexual-identifying men that there are degrees of bisexuality in men—some lean more toward homosexuality, some more toward heterosexuality, and some appear to be equally aroused by people of either gender. The researchers further suggest that the evidence is strong enough to put an end to the debate.