Mice Turned Gay or How Media Simplify Science Too Much

Homosexuality has been a controversial topic for a long time. Today, it is definitely more tolerated than fifty years ago, but various opinions and attitudes toward it exist. This and the memory of past punishment of homosexual people makes this issue very sensitive and scientific work focusing on it may be considered controversial. Media did not miss a chance to provide their audience with some “interesting and shocking” news when Nature, a prominent scientific journal, published a study about sexual preference in mice.

The study was published online on March 23, 2011, in Nature, with not very sensational and widely-comprehensible title “Molecular regulation of sexual preference revealed by genetic studies of 5-HT in the brains of male mice”. According to the scientists who conducted the study, sexual behavior of male mice deprived of serotonin neurons increases and they mate with both male and female mice. The results did not touch directly homosexuality and connections to human sexual behavior would be quite premature, because this study was first of its kind and explained only one aspect (serotonin). Nevertheless, some media did not hesitate to make this connection and attracted readers by really shocking titles. The best example of this is probably the article called Scientists Turn Mice Gay by Depriving Them of Serotonin. This was published on Gawker web, which is popular page allowing anyone who requests and is approved for sending them news. It was only one day after the original study was resealed in Nature. Mostly the title is problematic, because scientist turned the mice rather bisexual than homosexual (gay). The body of the article informs that male mice without serotonin neurons lost their interest in females, while this is not true – they mated with both sexes. In the introduction, the author also connects the results to the mood, because low levels of serotonin are connected to depression and antidepressants raise serotonin levels. He does so by suggesting that if one feels depressed, than he might be a gay. Although this can be easily perceived as irony, the connection is puzzling and makes the results of the study appear as not serious.

Much better article was published for example by CBS, emphasizing that whether the results can be applied to humans as well as whether the mice turned bisexual or only their sexual behavior was increased, is questionable. Sadly, this approach is not prevalent in popular articles, indicating that the purpose is more to entertain than to educate and inform.