This psychologist’s “gaydar” rearch mak unfortable. That’s the pot. - Vox

Contents:

• ROW OVER AI THAT 'INTIFI GAY FAC'
• 'I WAS SHOCKED WAS SO EASY': ​MEET THE PROFSOR WHO SAYS FACIAL REGNN ​​N TELL IF YOU'RE GAY
• TWO GAY MEN FACE FACE STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• THIS PSYCHOLOGIST’S “GAYDAR” REARCH MAK UNFORTABLE. THAT’S THE POT.
• FACIAL HTS SHARPEN PEOPLE'S 'GAYDAR'
• GAY PEOPLE LOOK DIFFERENT, WALK DIFFERENT THAN STRAIGHT PEOPLE
• GAY MEN PREFER MASCULE-FACED MEN, STUDY SUGGTS

ROW OVER AI THAT 'INTIFI GAY FAC'

Vcent Keh of MASCULAR Stud and Oliver Zke of Photomolekuel are pleased to announce the lnch of A Portra Isolatn, a project explorg emotnal and physil space the end of March 2020, as the COVID-19 global panmic grew spe and impact, gay men around the world were asked to subm self portras that reflected their experience of the ronavis lock-down.

The ia behd the llectn was to show that gay men are affected by the crisis a siar way to everyone else but more so.

'I WAS SHOCKED WAS SO EASY': ​MEET THE PROFSOR WHO SAYS FACIAL REGNN ​​N TELL IF YOU'RE GAY

Livg liv which are often agmented between nventnal work ndns and their private liv leav many gay men whout the tradnal support mechanisms of heterosexuals and this shows through the separated by geography, culture and age, the men the imag all share fears for the future, lonels, job secury, and separatn.

MASCULAR is a London-based stud tablished by Vcent Keh that explor elements of gay and male inty through photography. 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.

TWO GAY MEN FACE FACE STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

The January 2008 study vtigated people's abily to intify homosexual men om pictur of their fac alone. 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. Surprisgly, all participants (both men and women) sred above chance on this gaydar task, rrectly intifyg the gay fac. Then, they did a send search to fd other Facebook ers who had posted photos of the gay men their own profile.

"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. Aga, the thors superimposed the male fac (this time 80 gay and 80 straight) onto a whe background.

THIS PSYCHOLOGIST’S “GAYDAR” REARCH MAK UNFORTABLE. THAT’S THE POT.

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.

FACIAL HTS SHARPEN PEOPLE'S 'GAYDAR'

Curly, most of the participants unrtimated their abily to intify gay fac om the featur alone. That is to say, people seem to have honed and librated their gaydar whout knowg they've done so. 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. There were several fns of "gay face, " cludg this rogatory doozy:.

GAY PEOPLE LOOK DIFFERENT, WALK DIFFERENT THAN STRAIGHT PEOPLE

"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.

GAY MEN PREFER MASCULE-FACED MEN, STUDY SUGGTS

But perhaps there is a kernel of tth to another fn of "gay face" the Urban Dictnary:.

"Gay men do not differ om straight men the size and shape of any facial feature. Sce effemate gay men utilize siar facial exprsns as women, they velop female agg and mcle ntractn patterns their face. 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.