Is ‘Gaydar’ Really a Thg? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• GAYDAR: DO YOU HAVE IT?
• THE TTH ABOUT ‘GAYDAR’
• IS ‘GAYDAR’ REALLY A THG?
• HAVG A ‘GAYDAR’ MEANS THAT YOU WILL EASILY REGNIZE WHO IS GAY
• GAYDAR
• GAYDAR
• WHAT DO GAYDAR MEAN?
• TT YOUR GAYDAR
• DEFN OF GAYDAR
• MEANG OF GAYDAR ENGLISH
• GAYDAR
• GAYDAR MEANG

GAYDAR: DO YOU HAVE IT?

Gaydar has been the subject of a fair amount of scientific ntroversy as of late.

People talk about ‘gaydar’ as the abily to terme whether someone is gay based on their tun about the person.

Most scientific studi of gaydar suggt that there’s somethg to this ia.

THE TTH ABOUT ‘GAYDAR’

The wi-rangg fdgs suggt that gaydar n potentially pick up on everythg om one’s looks to movements to speech patterns. In fact, when people are asked to thk refully before makg a sexualy judgment, gaydar actually be ls accurate.

IS ‘GAYDAR’ REALLY A THG?

In other words, the more people thk about , the worse their gaydar is! For stance, people who hold anti-gay views typilly perform worse gaydar studi; by ntrast, sexual mori and people who have more faiary. In a particularly fascatg study, rearchers found that women’s gaydar was more accurate when they were ovulatg than when they weren’t.

Put another way, when women are at peak fertily, their abily to distguish men who are gay om those who are straight appears to improve. Most studi of gaydar volve askg people to make eher/or judgments: is this person gay or is this person straight? So what happens when bisexual people are clud gaydar rearch?

HAVG A ‘GAYDAR’ MEANS THAT YOU WILL EASILY REGNIZE WHO IS GAY

Also, when people are given the opportuny to gus a target’s sexualy on a spectm—a la the classic Ksey Sle—rather than makg eher/or cisns, gay and bisexual persons tend to be given pretty siar ratgs.

This suggts that gaydar really only distguish heterosexual om non-heterosexual, meang don’t necsarily help when to makg more fe-graed termatns.

Overall, gaydar helps people make sexual orientatn ferenc that are better than chance gusg; however, they are far om perfect. Most gaydar studi are set up so that participants would be rrect 50% of the time were they to rely on chance gusg.

GAYDAR

Bottom le: The rearch nducted to date suggts that there is somethg to the ia of gaydar that people appear able to tuively terme others’ sexualy at levels greater than chance rponse to a variety of cu. At the same time, though, gaydar is clearly an imperfect tool, and one that don’t necsarily appear sensive to the wi spectm of sexuali that exist.

Nothg illtrat this better than our apparent need to figure out who’s gay and who isn’t. Those who have the abily to divi the world to gay and non-gay are said to have gaydar, and you need not be gay to have . If you’re gay, then mak sense why you might want to know (support, romantic or sex partner, muny), but if you’re not, then ’s anyone’s gus.

GAYDAR

Why we want or need to know who’s gay—to repulse , to igne cursy, not to marry one, to jo them—is not the issue this post. In one of the bt overviews of gaydar basics, Nicholas Rule and Rav Alaei simply state that we “rely on a variety of subtle cu that gui judgment and behavr, ” even whout nscly realizg what we are dog or what we are relyg on. Both gay and straight dividuals have gaydar, though to varyg gre.

WHAT DO GAYDAR MEAN?

Rule and others, participants tegorized male fac as straight or gay better than chance (above 60% rather than a 50% chance level), even when the viewg time was merely one-twentieth of a send, fac didn’t differ emotnal exprsns, and hairstyl were cropped out.

From the evince, many of the judgments were ma (whether nscly or not) based on a genr versn prciple—gay men as femized and lbians as masculized.

TT YOUR GAYDAR

For example, varyg om straight men, rearch shows that gay men have shorter nos, smaller nostrils and, varyg om straight women, lbians have thicker mouths and unrb. I n’t answer this qutn, and ’s a difficult one to terme bee we don’t know what means to rec “random” gays and lbians, pecially bee many might not intify as such (e. G., not aware they’re gay, are not sufficiently out to participate gay rearch, or don’t want to give their data).

DEFN OF GAYDAR

For example, the gay photographs ed gaydar rearch are taken om “out” dividuals (on datg webs, Facebook, Craigslist). Might their genr versn have ed them to self-intify as gay/lbian and to have disclosed this fact?

MEANG OF GAYDAR ENGLISH

Could gays/lbians who are not out by choice or sign be intified as gay by raters? We know that men who ncealed their homosexualy were perceived by strangers as more likely to be straight (Tskhay & Rule, onle). I don’t know the answers, but the issu ought to be nsired future gaydar rearch.

GAYDAR

That is, do we have gaydar of sexual inty stereotyp or gaydar of sexual orientatn?

One clear answer is that gaydar affects employers’ cisns regardg who to hire, nsistent wh the stereotyp they have regardg who performs bt at that profsn (e.

GAYDAR MEANG

As bt as I n terme, the gaydar rearch is rtricted to a gay vers straight paradigm. They’re ually lumped wh gays and hence not unique (Dg & Rule, 2012). I jt download Krista Burton’s article, “Hipsters Broke My Gaydar” (), which qutns the accuracy of her gaydar now that hipsters have taken over queerns.