Gay men, is your hair swirl clockwise or unter-clockwise? (click for more )?

Contents:

• QUTN: 1. A GEILLY FLUENCED UNTERCLOCKWISE HAIR WHORL IS LIKELY TO BE A CHARACTERIST OF MEN WHO AREA) RIGHT-HAND.B)NOT RIGHT-HAND.C)GAY.D)STRAIGHT.14. PEOPLE'S DISLIKE OF NOVEL FOODS BT ILLTRATA) UN BIAS.B) NEOPHOBIA.C) HOMEOSTASIS.D) THE REACTORY PERD.15. THE PRACTICE OF 360-GREE FEEDBACK IS PECIALLY LIKELY TO VOLVEA)
• THE SCIENCE OF GAYDAR
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
• MOSW GAY MAP

QUTN: 1. A GEILLY FLUENCED UNTERCLOCKWISE HAIR WHORL IS LIKELY TO BE A CHARACTERIST OF MEN WHO AREA) RIGHT-HAND.B)NOT RIGHT-HAND.C)GAY.D)STRAIGHT.14. PEOPLE'S DISLIKE OF NOVEL FOODS BT ILLTRATA) UN BIAS.B) NEOPHOBIA.C) HOMEOSTASIS.D) THE REACTORY PERD.15. THE PRACTICE OF 360-GREE FEEDBACK IS PECIALLY LIKELY TO VOLVEA)

The thors took digal photographs of parietal surface hair whorls om 100 heterosexual men and 100 homosexual men who were predomantly right-hand. The thors found no signifint difference between heterosexual and homosexual men hair whorl directn, but the thors did replite the aternal birth orr effect (more olr brothers for homosexual men). While hair whorl is ocsnally ed to illtrate basic geics, gets more attentn bee some studi have suggted that unterclockwise whorls are more mon left-hand people than right-hand, and other studi have suggted that unterclockwise whorls are more mon gay men than straight men.

Klar (2004) surreptly rerd the directn of hair whorl at a beach near Rehoboth Beach, Delaware that is popular among gay men. " However, two more rigoro studi did not fd a signifint difference between gay and straight men the proportn of unterclockwise whorls. (2010) separated gay and straight men based on a qutnnaire, not which beach they went to, and termed their whorl type based on close examatn, not om a distance.

In both studi, the observer termed whether the whorl was clockwise or unterclockwise whout knowg whether the subject was gay or straight, which may be an important difference between the studi and that of Klar (2004). Whout beg aware of , most people n accurately intify gay men by face aloneAlthough I've always wanted this particular superhuman power, I've never been very good at tectg other men's sexual orientatn. Fdgs om a recent study published the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, however, suggt I may be unrtimatg my gaydar abili.

THE SCIENCE OF GAYDAR

In an ial experiment, rearchers Nicholas Rule and Nali Ambady om Tufts Universy pesed onle datg s and refully selected 45 straight male fac and 45 gay male fac. The 90 fac were then shown to 90 participants random orr, who were asked simply to judge the target's "probable sexual orientatn" (gay or straight) by prsg a button.

"Th, " the thors wrote, "by g photos of gay and straight dividuals that they themselv did not post, we were able to remove the fluence of self-prentatn and much of the potential selectn bias that may be prent photos om personal advertisements. And even wh the more strgent ntrols, the participants were able to intify the gay fac at levels greater than chance—aga even on those trials where the fac were flickered on the screen for a mere 50 lisends.

For example, when shown only the eye regn ("whout brows and cropped to the outer nthi so that not even "crow's-feet" were visible"), perceivers were amazgly still able to accurately intify a man as beg gay.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

But they also acknowledge that 's impossible to know om the fdgs what exactly is about the facial featur that give gays away. I was cur enough about Rule's fdgs to look up "gay face" the Urban Dictnary, a popular Web se that offers rmal, er-ntributed fns of everyday (often crass) saygs.

"A man, ually homosexual, wh a distctly effete facial stcture wh some very specific featur; a strong jawle [sic] that lacks promence, space between the ey that rell people wh down syndrome [sic], and a slopg, long forehead. Now, that one's rather silly and sensatnalized—even polilly spect—and there's certaly no scientific evince support of the claims about the "mongoloid" featur of homosexual men's fac.

For example, gay face clus tightns around the mouth om pursg the lips, a facial exprsn mon to gay men and women—but not to heterosexual men. For example, the send experiment, participants uld still ferret out the gay face when shown the eye regn sans eyebrows and cropped to the outer nthi.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

(For example, one of my PhD stunts, David Harnn-Warwick, has a sual hunch that gay men may have sharper, clearer iris than straight men. It was only a few years ago that rearchers disvered that, unlike straight men, gay men tend to have hair whorl patterns that n a unterclockwise directn. That's bee 10 percent of the general populatn has unterclockwise hair whorls, but about 20 percent of gay men have unterclockwise whorls.

So the unterclockwise whorl is more mon among gay readg about the hair whorl study, I've been checkg out the tops of men's heads to see which way their whorl standg on a Brown Le tra next to passengers fortunate enough to get a seat, I fd myself starg at their noggs: "Gay, straight, straight, gay, needs some Head & Shoulrs. I gus I uld always talk to him to figure out his orientatn, but I jt read about another study that said the x fgers of gay men are the same length as their rg fgers. David France, who is so gay that he -wrote Jim "Gay Amerin" McGreevey's The Confsn, has a long examatn of the (psdo)science behd gaydar New York mag.

" But if you're really terted lookg for physil signs of a gay gene, the article talks about three fun on: "gay accent, " lbo-hands (x fger longer than rg fger), and hair whorl (gay men's may tend to go unterclockwise). The article c a whorl study of "more than 50" short-haired gay men that took place at a pri ftival, about 23 percent of whom had unterclockwise hair whorls. Josh "you're gay, you have a girliend" Ste's whorl seems to n unterclockwise, but wh that much hair, five rults are hard to ascerta, which is pretty ftg.

MOSW GAY MAP

Also, CCW hair whorl is more mon gay men than men overall, and left-handns is more mon the gay populatn, than overall as well.

So, should be tertg to see if my own son turns out to be a rare righty, like me, or if he turns out to be lefty, like his Daddy, and/or gay, like his uncle. I know this om strangers who fd gay people offensive enough to elic a remark—tlls om b wdows, to e a recent example—as well as om untls sual social engagements which people easily assume my orientatn, no sensive gaydar necsary. I once placed a personal ad which I scribed myself as “gay-actg/gay-appearg, ” partly as a jab at my peers who prefer to be thought of as “str8” but mostly bee ’s jt who I am.

Maybe a better way to phrase would have been “third-sexer, ” the tegory advanced by the gay German sexologist Magn Hirschfeld 100 years ago. That’s what we mean by gaydar—not the skill of the viewer so much as the telltale signs most gay people project, the set of tras that make unmistakably one.