Gaydar: Do You Have It? | Psychology Today

Contents:

• THE TTH ABOUT ‘GAYDAR’
• IS ‘GAYDAR’ REALLY A THG?
• GAYDAR: DO YOU HAVE IT?
• IS ALLAN OM 'BARBIE' GAY? 5 REASONS TO THK HE MIGHT BE
• HOW GOOD IS YOUR GAYDAR? (LONG TT!)
• THE SCIENCE OF “GAYDAR”: HOW WELL CAN WE DETECT OTHER PEOPLE’S SEXUAL ORIENTATN?
• GAYDAR

THE TTH ABOUT ‘GAYDAR’

Gaydar works great on mobile, tablet and sktop, so you n e on the go or at home.

The Science of “Gaydar”:.

IS ‘GAYDAR’ REALLY A THG?

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

Is gaydar really a thg and, if so, how accurate is ? 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 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. In other words, the more people thk about , the worse their gaydar is!

GAYDAR: DO YOU HAVE IT?

Some people seem to have more accurate gaydar than others. For stance, people who hold anti-gay views typilly perform worse gaydar studi; by ntrast, sexual mori and people who have more faiary.

IS ALLAN OM 'BARBIE' GAY? 5 REASONS TO THK HE MIGHT BE

In a particularly fascatg study, rearchers found that women’s gaydar was more accurate when they were ovulatg than when they weren’t.

HOW GOOD IS YOUR GAYDAR? (LONG TT!)

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?

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. 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.

THE SCIENCE OF “GAYDAR”: HOW WELL CAN WE DETECT OTHER PEOPLE’S SEXUAL ORIENTATN?

Usg "gaydar" as a way to talk jokgly about stereotypg trivializ , rearchers say. Studi suggt that the perpetuatn of the gaydar myth has untend nsequenc. Stereotyp often fluence the imprsns, whether ’s that a black man is dangero, a woman won’t be a good lear or a fashnable man is gay.

Stereotyp related to gay men and lbians often operate unr the guise of “gaydar” rather than stereotypg.

GAYDAR

“Gaydar” (a portmante of “gay” and “radar”) is a term that first appeared the 1980s and refers to a “sixth sense” for intifyg who is gay.

Like many purported tuns, however, gaydar often reli on stereotyp. While many people believe stereotypg is wrong, llg “gaydar” merely provis a ver for g stereotypil tras – like someone’s fashn sense, profsn or hairstyle – to jump to nclns about someone beg gay. Nohels, some rearchers have published studi that, at first glance, appear to show that people have accurate gaydar.

In some recent work, my lleagu and I have been able to monstrate how the perpetuatn of the gaydar myth has untend negative nsequenc.