Genetics, environment, and personality all contribute—there is no single cause
A landmark study from the Max Planck Institute, drawing on data from more than 400,000 British adults, has mapped the quiet terrain of lifelong sexual inexperience — a condition touching roughly one percent of the population. Rather than a single cause, researchers found a convergence of genetics, personality, social circumstance, and economic environment shaping this experience. The findings arrive not as judgment but as illumination, asking societies to consider how they support those whose paths to intimacy and belonging diverge from the familiar.
- A study of unprecedented scale has upended simplistic narratives about lifelong sexual abstinence, revealing it as the product of overlapping genetic, psychological, and social forces rather than mere choice or dysfunction.
- Those who have never had sexual relations report measurably higher rates of loneliness, anxiety, and depression — a psychological toll researchers link directly to the absence of intimate partnership and its social scaffolding.
- Genetic inheritance accounts for roughly fifteen percent of the variation, with overlapping associations to intelligence, autism, and educational attainment — not a 'virginity gene,' but a complex biological thread woven through broader human traits.
- Men in regions marked by economic inequality or skewed gender ratios faced compounding disadvantages, while young people identifying as asexual often withdrew socially or concealed their identity to avoid stigma.
- Researchers and clinicians alike are now calling for asexuality to be recognized as a valid orientation rather than a disorder, and for mental health frameworks to better address the isolation experienced by this population.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics have completed the largest study ever conducted on adults who have never had sexual relations. Analyzing data from more than 400,000 British adults between the ages of 39 and 73, they found that approximately one percent reported lifelong sexual inexperience — a phenomenon, published in PNAS, that resists any single explanation.
Those in this group tended to be more educated than their peers, yet reported significantly greater loneliness, anxiety, and dissatisfaction with life. They were more socially withdrawn, consumed less alcohol and drugs, and many had worn glasses since childhood. Men were especially affected by living in regions with pronounced economic inequality or where women were underrepresented. Genetics accounted for roughly fifteen percent of the variation, with inherited factors overlapping with traits linked to intelligence, education, autism, and certain psychiatric conditions — though researchers were careful to note this is not a question of genes 'for' abstinence.
Lead researcher Karin Verweij emphasized that environment, personality, and genetics all converge in shaping the pattern. The absence of intimate partnership, the team noted, strips individuals of crucial social support, leaving them more vulnerable to depression and diminished wellbeing.
Psychiatrist and sexologist Walter Ghedin offered an important clinical distinction: asexuality is not a disorder but a different orientation — one characterized by reduced or absent sexual attraction. Asexual individuals may still seek romance, companionship, and deep connection through other means. Many, however, isolate themselves out of fear of shame or discrimination, or fabricate sexual experiences to conform to social expectations.
The study deliberately avoided moral judgment and did not separate voluntary abstinence from involuntary inexperience. What it did accomplish was a detailed mapping of the forces at play — and an implicit challenge to the stigma long attached to this experience. Its authors suggest that asexuality deserves recognition as a valid orientation, and that the deeper question now is how societies might better support those whose routes to connection and fulfillment take a different shape.
A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt has completed the largest study to date on adults who have never had sexual relations, and what they found defies simple explanation. Among more than 400,000 British adults aged 39 to 73, roughly one percent reported lifelong sexual inexperience. The study, published in PNAS, reveals that this phenomenon emerges not from any single cause but from a tangled interaction of genetics, psychology, social circumstance, and environment.
The people in this group tended to be more educated than their sexually experienced peers, yet they reported significantly higher levels of loneliness, anxiety, and dissatisfaction with their lives. They consumed less alcohol and drugs. Many had worn glasses since childhood. They were more socially withdrawn, which made finding a partner harder. Men in this category were particularly affected by living in regions where women were scarce, or where economic inequality was pronounced. The researchers estimate that roughly fifteen percent of the variation in lifelong sexual inexperience can be traced to inherited genetic factors—though this is not, as one co-author emphasized, a matter of "genes for virginity." Rather, the genetic associations overlap with traits linked to intelligence, education, autism, and other psychiatric conditions.
Karin Verweij, a lead researcher at Amsterdam University Medical Centre, stressed that environment, personality, and genetics all contribute to the pattern. The socioeconomic context matters: people living in areas of high income inequality were more likely to remain sexually inexperienced throughout their lives. The absence of intimate partnership, the researchers note, deprives individuals of important sources of social support, leaving them vulnerable to loneliness, anxiety, depression, and diminished overall wellbeing.
Psychiatrist and sexologist Walter Ghedin, consulted on the findings, offered a clinical perspective. Asexuality, he explained, refers not to a disorder or dysfunction but to a reduced or absent attraction to sex—a different orientation altogether. Many asexual people, he noted, find other pathways to intimacy and connection: romance, communication, shared interests, work, and companionship. Some asexual individuals are heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual; the distinction lies not in the gender of potential partners but in the nature of attraction itself. Young people who identify as asexual often isolate themselves out of fear of discrimination or shame, or they may fabricate sexual experiences to fit in with peers.
The research team was careful to note that their findings carry no moral judgment about the choice or circumstance of not having sexual relations. The study did not distinguish between voluntary abstinence and involuntary inexperience, yet it succeeded in mapping multiple factors connected to the phenomenon. Abdel Abdellaoui, another co-author at Amsterdam UMC, highlighted what struck him most: the convergence of genetic factors associated with intelligence, education, and conditions like autism. Laura Wesseldijk of the Max Planck Institute underscored the mental health toll, emphasizing that the loss of intimate partnership and its attendant social support creates measurable psychological harm.
The findings open new avenues for understanding the relationship between sexual abstinence, mental health, and overall wellbeing. They also challenge the stigma that has long surrounded this experience, suggesting instead that asexuality deserves recognition as a valid orientation—one that exists across the spectrum of human sexuality, neither chosen nor broken, but simply different. What remains to be explored is how societies might better support people whose paths to connection and fulfillment diverge from the conventional.
Citas Notables
The environment, personality, and genetics all contribute. These associations don't prove direct causality, but show how different factors connect with a life without sex.— Karin Verweij, Amsterdam University Medical Centre
Asexuality refers to reduced or absent sexual attraction, and asexual people don't see themselves as suffering from a disorder—they accept the lack of attraction as one of many different orientations.— Dr. Walter Ghedin, psychiatrist and sexologist
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
So this study found that one percent of four hundred thousand people had never had sex. That's a small number. Why does it matter?
Because it's the largest dataset we have on this population, and it reveals something counterintuitive: these aren't people with low education or poor health. Many are highly educated. They're struggling with loneliness and anxiety, which suggests the absence of intimate partnership itself is causing harm.
The study mentions genetics—about fifteen percent of the variation. That sounds like it could be misread as "some people are genetically programmed not to have sex."
Exactly the trap to avoid. The researchers were careful about this. It's not a gene for virginity. It's that genetic factors linked to autism, intelligence, and certain psychiatric traits overlap with lifelong sexual inexperience. The environment and personality matter just as much, maybe more.
What about the men living in regions with fewer women? That's a concrete social factor.
Yes. And it points to something the study couldn't fully disentangle: how much of this is involuntary versus chosen. A man in a region with severe gender imbalance faces real structural barriers. Someone who identifies as asexual may have made a different kind of choice.
The psychiatrist mentioned that asexual people don't see themselves as disordered. They're not suffering from low desire—they just don't experience attraction the same way.
That's the crucial distinction. Asexuality is an orientation, not a pathology. But the study found that people in this group do report higher anxiety and depression. So there's a difference between asexuality as an identity and the social isolation and loneliness that can accompany it.
So the harm isn't the lack of sex itself. It's the lack of partnership and support.
Precisely. The researchers found that intimate partnerships provide crucial social support. When people lack that—whether by choice or circumstance—they lose access to something that matters for mental health. That's the real finding.