No, There Isn't A "Virgin Gene" – The Truth Is Way More Interesting

If you’ve never had sex, your genetics could be partly responsible – but not as much as your physical characteristics, location, and behavior. That’s the conclusion drawn from a new study that analyzed the observable characteristics and genetics of more than 400,000 adults from the UK and Australia – though the researchers say that a lot still remains unclear.

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“Some people – often described as ‘asexual’ – simply don’t desire sex,” explained Brendan Zietsch, an associate professor at the University of Queensland’s School of Psychology and study coauthor, in an accompanying article for The Conversation.

“However, those who do but are unable to find suitable and willing partners may be vulnerable to poor mental health and loneliness, social embarrassment, and economic disadvantages,” he wrote. “People involved in online ‘incel’ (involuntary celibate) cultures may even be at risk of radicalization.”

“So it is important to understand more about people who don’t have sex.”

Life without sex

So, first things first: just how many people are we talking about here? Well, out of the 413,500 total individuals in the study, around 1 percent – both men and women – were found to have never had sex. 

It’s a small proportion, to be sure, but it’s not that rare. In a country of 69 million (nice. Also: fitting) like the UK, it corresponds to 690,000 people who’ll never have sex – enough to fill an entire El Paso, Texas, with some left over. It would be about 850,000 people in New York; 380,000 in Los Angeles; 240,000 in Houston. These are not insignificant numbers.

Alternatively, simply consider how many redheads you’ve met in your life. That characteristic defines a population of less than 2 percent worldwide, and not much more in the US – so yeah: chances are, you’ve come across a life-long abstainer from sex at some point.

But does anything outside of their sexual (non) habits mark them out? Some characteristics were certainly found to be more prevalent among the population: “people who had never had sex […] tended to feel more nervous and lonely and less happy, and had fewer visits from friends and family,” Zietsch wrote. “They were also less likely to have someone to confide in or to believe that life is meaningful.”

Physically, they had a few notable characteristics: they started wearing glasses earlier than their more sexual peers, and – in men far more than women – exhibited lower upper body strength. They’re more likely to be autistic, have ADHD, or otherwise struggle with their mental health. It is almost exactly, as the paper itself states, “the stereotype of a ‘nerd’” – which, in turn, is “associated with lack of romantic success.” 

Now, yes, that sounds bleak, but it’s not the whole story. People who forego sex are also more intelligent, and less dependent on alcohol, nicotine, and illegal drugs. They spend less time on their phones – less sexting, it seems, leads to less doomscrolling. And they have more money, at least individually – perhaps related to the fact that they work longer hours and don’t seem to have those more expensive vices.

But while no doubt reassuring to many, all of that is… well, a bit confusing to the researchers. “On the face of it, these associations are counterintuitive,” they write, “especially from an evolutionary perspective in which intelligence and resources are supposed to be attractive traits in a potential partner.” 

“Obvious explanations […] are not apparent to us.”

The genetic picture

With so many correlations across behavior and characteristics, it will no doubt be tempting to start talking about some kind of “virgin gene” – but the team stress that no such thing exists. “Using what’s called a genome-wide association analysis, we found genes accounted for 15 percent of the variation in whether or not individuals had had sex,” Zietsch wrote. 

“However, there were no individual genes with large effects,” he explained. “Rather, there were many genes, each with tiny effects.”

Not only is the genetic picture pointillistic, but it’s also messy: the genes that are associated with not having sex for men are sometimes the same as those found in women, but sometimes not; they’re sometimes the same as those found in people who don’t have children, but sometimes not. One particular allele of one gene did seem to be declining – “[a] result [that] aligns with what we would expect if the allele had been increasing individuals’ likelihood of sexlessness,” the researchers write, “and thus of not passing on their genes, for many generations” – but even that finding should be treated with caution. “Although they are consistent with the expected selection pressure, the precise function of this genetic variant remains unknown,” the team points out, “and its observed effect size is small.”

More than that is the fact that, well, human sexual behavior is complicated. Human anything behavior is complicated, really – there are social reasons for not having sex; religious reasons; personal reasons; expecting to figure all these out through an anonymous genome study is, let’s say, hopeful at best. We don’t even know to what extent cause and effect are in either direction – is it, for example, that achieving a higher level of education reduces your likelihood of attracting a sexual partner? Or does not having sex simply allow you more time to study? Is not having sex making people introverted and isolated, or do potential partners simply not want to get naked for somebody they find unfriendly and unsocial?

“There is much uncertainty about the causal processes underlying the observed genetic (and phenotypic) correlations, and this limitation must be kept in mind when interpreting the findings,” the paper cautions. “Research using different methodologies, more detailed information about the causes of sexlessness, and different populations may help to triangulate a deeper causal understanding of the social and biological underpinnings of sexlessness.”

The role of society

We are all a product of the time and place we live in – and for some people, their lack of sexual experience is, too. If you’re a man who hasn’t had sex, chances are you live in a place that simply has fewer women, the study found – a remarkably practical explanation for your sexual situation. Living in an area with higher income inequality was also correlated with a lack of sexual behavior, for both men and women – which, who knows, may explain why the US has so much less sex going on than, say, Spain.

The study also noted the potential role of society when faced with, you know, a smart, obviously weak, glasses-wearing kid. For example, “it could be that wearing glasses at an early age disrupts early adolescent dating experiences, which in turn impacts later sexual success,” they suggest. And while it may be that not having sex reduces your mental wellbeing, “it may also be that poor mental well-being makes approaching or attracting potential sexual partners more difficult,” they write.

But there’s another societal impact we have to be careful with – and that’s how it affects the study itself. There’s no getting around it: people are weird about sex, and that has historically made researching it very difficult – men lie about how many people they’ve slept with and how big their dick is; women lie about how many people they haven’t slept with and whether or not they had an orgasm. This way lies 10 percent of young people with a confirmed STD diagnosis protesting that they haven’t had sex; perhaps it also explains the 13 people in the new study who reported having children despite their lifelong abstinence.

All in all, it just means that a lot more research is needed before any strong conclusions are drawn – and, to be fair, the team is already on it, suggesting multiple methods and directions for future projects that may shed light on the bigger picture.

“Our study represents a large step forward in understanding sexlessness,” Zietsch wrote. “However, more nuanced assessment of desire and sexuality will be key to better characterizing how sexlessness relates to the interplay between genes, local environments, sexuality and culture.”

“By studying this trait, we only aim for a deeper understanding, which generally benefits all concerned,” he added. 

“There should be no value judgement on individuals who do not have sex, whether voluntarily or otherwise.”

The study is published in the journal PNAS (no pun intended).