Honors 221 B: DNA & Evolution

Independent Research Project

Final Report

Family Sex Ratios May Not Be Completely Random


3/16/14





Benjamin Janicki
benjaj2
1031779









Abstract
Do gender ratios run in families? In other words, if you were born into a family with mostly boys
or girls, can you expect to see a similarly skewed gender ratio among your own children, or will your
results be random? This research project attempted to answer this question by using an online survey.
The survey asked participants for the sex ratios in their immediate family as well as those of each of their
parents. The results showed a relatively strong correlation between the sex ratio of participants families
and that of their fathers family, but no correlation at all with their mothers family. This suggests that
there may be at least some genetic capability for fathers to control the sexes of their offspring, but the vast
majority of the variation is still due to chance.















Introduction
I was born into a family of five brothers. This may not seem an interesting statistic, but it turns
out that my dad comes from a family with five sons and three daughters, and among the grandkids of my
generation, 21 out of 28 are male. Does my paternal family have a gene that causes higher ratios of male
offspring, or are these results random?
Populations typically have gender ratios close to 50-50. However, it appears to me that we meet
families with highly skewed gender ratios more often than we should. My mother comes from a family of
six sisters, as does my freshman roommates mother. King Henry VIII had nearly all daughters, to his
own notorious disappointment.
There are several possible mechanisms for mammals to unconsciously control the gender of their
offspring. All of a womans eggs will posses X-chromosomes, but roughly half of a mans sperm will
posses Y-chromosomes. It is theoretically possible for men to control the gender of their offspring by
producing more of one kind of sperm than the other, or by producing one kind of sperm that swims faster
than the other. It is also conceivable for women to control the gender of their offspring by sorting sperm
or unconsciously performing selective abortions of embryos. If such genes exist to control offspring
gender ratios, are these genes heritable?
Since the gender ratio of my family matches that of my dad, but not that of my mom, my first
hypothesis is that men control the gender ratio of their offspring and pass the associated gene on to their
sons. However, I have also developed some alternative hypotheses. My second hypothesis is that
mothers control the sex ratio, and my third hypothesis is that both parents have some control, and
therefore the average sex ratios between parents families is more critical.
In order to answer this question, we must also establish a null hypothesis, the hypothesis that
would be true if nothing interesting is happening. In this case, the null hypothesis is that these families
with skewed gender ratios are merely the result of random chance.
Methods
I designed an online survey to test my three alternate hypotheses. The survey asks for the gender
of the participant, how many biological brothers and sisters they have, and how many brothers and sisters
each of their biological parents have. This information gives me the sex ratio of the participants family,
and the sex ratio of each of their parents families.
If my first hypothesis is correct, and gender ratios run in families via the father, then the gender
ratios of participants families and their fathers families should be more similar to each other than would
be predicted by chance. Such a hypothetical result is shown in figure 1.
Additionally, it is possible that mothers, rather than fathers, control the gender ratio. If my
second hypothesis is correct, then family gender ratios for participants will be similar to those of their
mothers, and we would get a graph similar to figure 2.
It is also possible for both parents to have some control. If my third hypothesis is correct, then
we will see a correlation between the average sex ratios between parents and the sex ratio of their
offspring. Such a result is shown in figure 3.
If my first hypothesis is wrong, then there will be no correlation between the sex ratios of
participants families and the families of their fathers. Such a hypothetical result is shown in figure 3, and
would support the null hypothesis. We would see similar results if hypotheses 2 and 3 were incorrect.
Results
My results are shown in figures 5, 6, 7, and 8. As can be seen from figure 8, I had 225 people
take my survey. 64% of respondents were female, and 36% were male.
From figure 5 we can see that my results for the correlation between fathers and offspring are
somewhat consistent with hypothesis 1, and similar to what I predicted in figure 1, with a relatively strong
slope of .228.
From figure 6 we can see that my results for the correlation between mothers and offspring are
contrary to what I predicted in figure 2, refuting hypothesis 2, with a tiny slope of .0685. This is
consistent with the null hypothesis as predicted in figure 4.
From figure 7 we can see that my results for the correlation between the average sex ratios for
parents and those of participants are somewhat consistent with hypothesis 3, and similar to what I
predicted in figure 3, with a relatively strong slope of .2932. This slope is close, but slightly higher than
the slope that supports hypothesis 1.
Discussion
My original predictions were that one of my three alternative hypotheses would be true, and the
other two would be refuted, displaying results similar to the null hypothesis. However, my results appear
to be consistent with both hypothesis 1 and 3, refuting only hypothesis 2.
This is an interesting result, and seems to suggest that both the sex ratio of your fathers family
and the average sex ratio of your parents families matter, but the sex ratio of mothers family does not
matter. How could this be the case, when the average sex ratio of your parents families depends on both
your mothers family and your fathers family?
I think that part of the reason the correlation was so high for the average sex ratio of parents
families is because that value was much closer to 50%. After all, since biological parents have opposite
sexes, their respective families are more likely to have sex ratios tilted in the direction of their respective
sex. This makes the average sex ratio of your parents families more likely to be close to 50% than either
of their respective families.
It is interesting to note that my results were somewhat consistent with hypothesis 1, while 64% of
my respondents were female. Statistically, a female participants family is more likely to be skewed in the
direction of females than males, and the sex ratio of her fathers family is more likely to be skewed in the
direction of males. Even with this data bias toward females, the correlation with fathers families was
over three times higher than the correlation with mothers families. More data would have to be gathered,
but this seems to suggest that we might find an even higher correlation with fathers families with a more
gender-balanced study.
What can we conclude from these results? Well, first of all, we can conclude that there is a large
component of random chance in the formation of family sex ratios. The correlations I found are
compelling, but still small, and my sample size is not large. Second, we can say that family sex ratios are
much more likely to be similar to the fathers family than to the mothers family. This tells us very little
about a particular family, but does suggest something interesting about population genetics as a whole.
More studies will need to be done to substantiate this hypothesis.
It is important to note that this was an observational study of a first world population with a small
sample size. One of the biggest problems with doing this study on a first world population is that large
families are rare, and therefore sex ratios of 100% or 0% are much more common than they would be in
nature.
It would be interesting to repeat this study in multiple third world countries where large family
sizes are prevalent, and may present a more accurate portrayal of family sex ratios. If we received similar
or even stronger results to this study, then my hypothesis would be substantiated. However, if the results
were more similar to those predicted for the null hypothesis, then my hypothesis would be refuted.



Figure 1: This is what my results would look like if my first hypothesis were true. There would be a
strong correlation between the sex ratio of a participants family and the family of their father.



Figure 2: This is what my results would look like if my second hypothesis were true. There would be a
strong correlation between the sex ratio of a participants family and the family of their mother.

Figure 3: This is what my results would look like if my third hypothesis were true. There would be a
strong correlation between the sex ratio of a participants family and the average sex ratios of their
parents families.


Figure 4: This is what my results would look like if my first hypothesis were false. There would be no
correlation between the sex ratio of a participants family and that of their fathers family. We would see
similar graphs if hypothesis 2 and 3 were also false. This would support the null hypothesis, and would
suggest that family sex ratios are merely the result of random chance.

Figure 5: This graph plots the sex ratio of participants families vs that of their fathers family, and is
somewhat consistent with my predictions in figure 1. The results appear random, but a linear fit produces
a relatively strong slope of 0.228.


Figure 6: This graph plots the sex ratio of participants families vs that of their mothers family, and is
not consistent with my predictions in figure 2, but supports my predictions in figure 4 and the null
hypothesis. The results are very random, and a linear fit produces a tiny slope of 0.0685.

Figure 7: This graph plots the sex ratio of participants families vs the average of their parents families,
and is somewhat consistent with my predictions in figure 3. The results appear random, but a linear fit
produces a relatively strong slope of 0.2932.


Figure 8: This graph shows 228 people took my survey, and 64% of them were female.