A new scientific study confirms that men who have a sexual attraction to both men and women is real, and dispels the stereotype that bisexual men are just closeted homosexuals, or simply confused.
The new report is notable because it refutes previous research by the same group that had earlier challenged the very existence of male bisexuality.
For the new study, researchers at Northwestern University recruited a group of 100 Chicago-area men, identifying as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual in roughly equal numbers. Unlike a previous Northwestern study of bisexuality, however, the current study used more stringent criteria to define bisexuality.
Bisexual men were required to have had sexual encounters with at least two people of each gender and to have been in at least one romantic relationship of three months or longer with a person of each gender. The previous study, published in 2005, largely relied on responses to a standard questionnaire to determine sexual orientation.
For the new study — in the August issue of Biological Psychology — researchers showed the men a series of three-minute videos while their genitals were wired with arousal-detecting electrodes to determine that bisexual men were physically aroused by both sexes.
According to The New York Times, the findings are consistent with another recent report, from researchers at Indiana State University and the Kinsey Institute, that also found a distinctive pattern of arousal, as well as subjective response, among bisexual men.
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