The Science of “Gaydar”: How Well Can We Detect Other People’s Sexual Orientatn?

Contents:

• HOW TO DISCREETLY FD OUT IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS GAY
• HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY
• HOW TO TELL IF SOMEONE IS GAY: 10 SUBTLE CLU THAT MAKE IT LIKELY
• SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY
• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• 'I WAS SHOCKED WAS SO EASY': ​MEET THE PROFSOR WHO SAYS FACIAL REGNN ​​N TELL IF YOU'RE GAY
• GAY OR STRAIGHT?

HOW TO DISCREETLY FD OUT IF SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS GAY

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 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.

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR GUY FRIEND IS GAY

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.

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.

HOW TO TELL IF SOMEONE IS GAY: 10 SUBTLE CLU THAT MAKE IT LIKELY

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:. "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.

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FALLY UNLOCKED PUZZLE OF WHY PEOPLE ARE GAY

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. 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.

Also, gay men are more emotnally exprsive, leadg to a general 'tightns' and mcular activatn throughout the entire face. Gay face clus an eye exprsn that is both surprised-lookg and predatory.

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

There is often a slightly tan and/or leathery look to the sk, pecially among olr gay men. Lbians also have a versn of gay face that emulat the facial mcular age patterns of straight 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.

In addn, ntrary to this urban fn, there may ed be subtle, yet prently unknown, differenc between gay and straight fac. (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. There are lots of reasons why you might want to know if your iend is gay.

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

You may want to know if your iend is gay, but there may be a good reason why they're stayg closeted. For example, his fay may be vlently homophobic and by cidg that he's gay, you may out him by accint by treatg him different or implyg somethg whout meang to.

If you're tryg to figure out if your iend is gay bee you want to date him (as a woman), 's important to remember that jt bee he might be terted men don't mean he's not terted women. Even if he is gay, that should not rm your opn of him. Another important thg to remember is that 's not very important whether or not he's gay.

How do you know if you’re gay? This n be another ditor that he's gay. If you're not seeg any of that, then he might be gay.

GAY OR STRAIGHT?

One of the theori about why some people are gay has to do wh the hormon that they're exposed to before they're born. The hormone exposure levels may manift actual, physil ways which n be a vague ditor that a guy might be gay.