Is it genetic?

As a recent 23&me participant and one who has read everything they have to offer, I will say the answer to this question is just "interest away". Unfortunately, unlike disinclination to cilantro, no one is ASKING. I answered nearly 2000 questions for their surveys and was never once asked about any inclination towards spanking or even D/s interest in general. They did ask about proclivity a lot though. All that has to happen is for that spanking question to be asked and then run the responses through their computer programs that could (if it exists) isolate the gene associated. Any bets on how likely this question inclusion is?

I suspect not very likely on account of the fact that the question setters suspect that they would find the answer was that far, far more folk have interests in this field than they would like to think. The kink is just too disreputable, from the outside at least, and also, it has to be said, by a certain part of ourselves as well. I would posit that one of the reasons our kink is exciting is that it is slightly taboo.

I know someone who completely agrees with you on that. As for the improbability of 23&me asking? I think it's a combination of shame and a possible belief that such a question would deter from the public's perception of them as a serious genetic research team. But the real shame I think is more that a question that plagues a sizable portion of the population will never be answered in their lifetimes due to such negative association. Like I said, add one question and search the result and you'd have a possible answer. It's that easy.

And it's not like they don't already ask some pretty personal questions, and answering is not mandatory.

This is a perennially fascinating question, and while it may not be possible to ever answer it definitively it remains highly intriguing.

In the first place, speaking scientifically, there cannot be a specific 'gene for spanking'. Genetics does not work that way, and there are simply not enough genes in the human genome for there to be a specific one for every different sexual preference.

But, assuming that 'gene' is just shorthand for 'inherited rather than acquired', and speaking strictly from my own memories and introspection, then I would certainly agree that it feels 'hard-wired', something that we are born with rather than something we develop, nature not nurture.

But why shouldn't it be both? I have the feeling that almost everybody has some interest in spanking - it's just that most of them are only a little bit interested, and it isn't strong enough to be erotic. I suspect that pretty much everyone, for example, reacts to the spanking scenes in, say, McClintock or Kiss Me Kate, but it just makes them laugh, or feel a very mild titillation, or possibly get annoyed - but it isn't nearly enough to turn them on. Their interest may be enough for them to joke about it, or indeed, give a bending bottom a passing slap, but it certainly isn't enough to make them go through all the hassle and rejection of trying to find someone willing to be properly spanked, or put themselves through the pain and humiliation of actually receiving a spanking.

In other words, it's not that we spankos have an interest that no one else does, just that we are more interested than the average - interested enough to fantasise about it, to go looking for spanking stories or videos, or to indulge in the activity in real life. And after all, it isn't so difficult to explain why some people are more interested than others in something: some people are more interested in all forms of sex than others are, that's just human nature.

The 'spanking gene' has sometimes been mentioned as a parallel to the so-called 'gay gene', but I think it's more likely that in both cases there's a continuum, and we are all on it somewhere.

Interesting comments, Steve9259. In reality, of course, no scientist would ever argue that any behaviour worth commenting on (so I am excluding things like breathing and blinking which might get us into deeper waters) is either nature (genes) OR nurture (environment) - it is always both. In other words you can't have one without the other. No genes, no behaviour (in fact, no life at all). No environment, no functional genes (and again no behaviour or life).

The subject matter of behavioural genetics attempts to measure the contribution a particular environment or genome plays in the expression of behaviour, but the results are never anything like 100% genes or environment.

Hope this helps to clarify the nature - nurture debate in general, not just with respect to my other favourite topic ... spanking.

Many is the time I've tried to figure out where my interest came from, and though I have a few hints and clues, I'm still somewhat mystified.
I will say I have long loved the sight of women's derrieres, yet why I 'like'/need mine warmed by a woman is a slightly different question. Help!

I always felt that i was alone and i was the only one with this "fetish" and for the longest time felt ashamed. Then came the internet and all is "right" But i have never seen my children develop or show any interest in spanking or even want to spank.

I concur KevinG, if I hadn't been so ashamed of my desire for a spanking as a teen, I would have asked my aunt to give me one, when she jokingly threatened to a few times back in the late 60s.

I had the same revelation. While young, I thought I was the only weird one in the entire world and I couldn't really identify my desires as a kink, but rather some kind of brain damage. Then along came the Internet and I realized that there were millions upon millions of people just like me. And there probably were among the people I met as young as well. It was just that no one dared to show their preferences, or even understood them.

I grew up pre-Internet and I, after much soul searching and mental hand wringing, approached my [now ex] husband and confided my interest in and desire to be spanked. His response was to tell me that I was "sick" and that I "need professional help" and that he couldn't believe that I would "want to be beaten".

This pretty much reinforced my belief that I was a twisted freak. In 1999 I got my first computer and typed spanking into the web browser and the clouds parted and color re-entered my life and I found that I was not insane [at least not when it comes to my spanking interest at any rate!] for there were many like minded souls out there.