Scientists find that most people can accurately guess whether someone is gay
37 replies, posted
[quote]
FIRST impressions are said to play a big part in how we are perceived by romantic interests and potential employers.
But people can tell more about you than what can be gathered from a firm handshake and a warm smile, according to new research.
People have an inbuilt 'gaydar', which enables them to judge in the blink of an eye whether someone is gay or straight, a study at the University of Washington has found.
And it is easier to judge a woman's sexuality than a man's - just from glancing at them.
The study asked students to guess someone's sexuality from looking at pictures of their faces for less than a second.
In two-thirds of cases, they were able to tell if a woman was gay or straight, and they accurately judged 57 per cent of the males they saw.
96 black-and-white photos of gay and straight men and women were shown to 129 students, who were then asked to guess their subject's sexuality.
Subjects with facial hair, glasses and makeup were not used in the study to prevent 'easy clues'.
The pictures were also cropped so that hairstyles were not visible.
The study, published in the online Public Library of Science, suggests that we unconsciously make decisions about whether someone is gay or straight every time we meet a new person.
'It may be similar to how we don't have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white,' said author Joshua Tabak, a psychology student at the University of Washington.
'This information confronts us in everyday life.'
Even turning the faces upside down did not stop identification. Even with a split second to view the flipped photos, people guessed correctly most of the time.
However, not everyone has a 'gaydar'. Tabak said that in his experiment there was 'always a small number of people with no ability to distinguish gay and straight faces'.
'People from older generations or different cultures who may not have grown up knowing they were interacting with gay people' could be less accurate in making gay versus straight judgments, he said.[/quote]
[url]http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/scientists-find-that-most-people-can-accurately-guess-whether-someone-is-gay/story-e6frf00i-1226357936843[/url]
"my gaydar is going off"
[QUOTE]accurately judged 57 per cent of the males they saw[/QUOTE]
so they got half right? Isnt that the same as just guessing?
Here's one possible factor that may have skewed those readings. If the scientists used a sample (of pictures) that was representative of the number of straight and gay people in society, then it's probably accurate. But if they used a sample with an exactly equal number of straight and gay people, it's skewed. If you were a test subject that question you'd automatically assume the latter, and be more free with your idea of which subject was gay and which subject wasn't. That margin of error mentioned doesn't indicate any sort of trend, it's just an anomaly.
[QUOTE=ac/14;35986909]so they got half right? Isnt that the same as just guessing?[/QUOTE] Actually they got closer to 3/5 which is statistically better than guessing. Remember your elementary math lessons, dude? 5 and greater, you round up. 4 and lower, you round down. You don't round 57% to 50%. Also, tons of people think I'm gay or bisexual, but I'm not, so I don't know how to feel about these results.
IF they redid the test with a completely different sampling proportion, I bet their tally would be more or less the same, with most guesses wrong.
If you have a Gaydar, you may be gay
I was called gay all throughout high school, but I honestly can't stand the sight of the male body.
Probably because I was the nerd to get picked on, though...
I'm going to call bullshit. There's really no natural physical deference between gay or straight people, there's no way you could tell just by looking at their plain face.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35987222]I was called gay all throughout high school, but I honestly can't stand the sight of the male body. Probably because I was the nerd to get picked on, though...[/QUOTE] Thank god I'm a big dude, I could be as nerdy as I wanted and no one picked on me since people genuinely thought I could knock them out.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35987222]I was called gay all throughout high school, but I honestly can't stand the sight of the male body.
Probably because I was the nerd to get picked on, though...[/QUOTE]
A lot of time people calling you gay has nothing to do with what they perceive your sexual orientation to be.
It's easy
Just remember this little rule of thumb
If they wear the earring on their right, they like to take it [i]right[/i] up the ass
if it's on the left, they'd rather have their butthole be [i]left[/i] alone
[QUOTE=koeniginator;35987375]It's easy Just remember this little rule of thumb If they wear the earring on their right, they like to take it [i]right[/i] up the ass if it's on the left, they'd rather have their butthole be [i]left[/i] alone[/QUOTE] What if I like to take it right up the ass, but I'm still straight?
[QUOTE=yawmwen;35987397]What if I like to take it right up the ass, but I'm still straight?[/QUOTE]
nigga u gay
[QUOTE=MegaChalupa;35987298]A lot of time people calling you gay has nothing to do with what they perceive your sexual orientation to be.[/QUOTE]
Some of the time, but not always. They liked getting intently detailed on my preferences in the bed.
Luckily, I just never gave a fuck. I was never one to really care much about what you called me. I knew I wasn't gay so I didn't care if they called me whatever. It just didn't help when one person said it, everyone saw my lack of reaction, and then assumed "Oh, it must be true".
[QUOTE=ac/14;35986909]so they got half right? Isnt that the same as just guessing?[/QUOTE]
also I doubt people would be able to make such one-second instant guesses without someone asking "do you think this person is gay or straight????"
When I first started high school, everyone thought I was gay, but I am not. It's okay though, gay people are wonderful!
[QUOTE=ac/14;35986909]so they got half right? Isnt that the same as just guessing?[/QUOTE]
That would only be true if 50% of men were gay, which is frankly not the true proportion. Most people don't think that 50% of people they meet are gay so they wouldn't guess as such.
Gaia left gaydar on in the settings menu.
Literally a 50/50 chance of getting any one judgement correct. I don't place much stock in this story. People haven't been able to figure me out yet.
[QUOTE=SKEEA;35987677]Literally a 50/50 chance of getting any one judgement correct. I don't place much stock in this story. People haven't been able to figure me out yet.[/QUOTE]
Except people wouldn't guess that 50% of people are gay, the real number is probably closer to 5%
[QUOTE=yawmwen;35986935]Actually they got closer to 3/5 which is statistically better than guessing. Remember your elementary math lessons, dude? 5 and greater, you round up. 4 and lower, you round down. You don't round 57% to 50%. Also, tons of people think I'm gay or bisexual, but I'm not, so I don't know how to feel about these results.[/QUOTE]
60% isnt a significant percentage either
it's a little over half, and if you're completely guessing of course one side is going to be stacked a bit more than the other (it would be very weird if while guessing you got exactly 50% of it right/wrong)
[editline]16th May 2012[/editline]
and for guessing i'd rather keep it at 57%, there's no real point in rounding up since you're just trying to make it seem like it's more credible
[QUOTE=Valdor;35987700]60% isnt a significant percentage either it's a little over half, and if you're completely guessing of course one side is going to be stacked a bit more than the other (it would be very weird if while guessing you got exactly 50% of it right/wrong) [editline]16th May 2012[/editline] and for guessing i'd rather keep it at 57%, there's no real point in rounding up since you're just trying to make it seem like it's more credible[/QUOTE] Yea, but you would probably get a number around 53% or 52%, not 57%. I mean, it's possible it was just an accident. This study is not proof of anything, but merely showing that more research should be done in this area.
Alright guys I just did a z hypothesis test on the data and I got a P Value of .047178 so it's pretty safe to assume that it's a statistically significant deviation from the null hypothesis of 50% chance.
[QUOTE=MBB;35987776]Alright guys I just did a z hypothesis test on the data and I got a P Value of .047178 so it's pretty safe to assume that it's a statistically significant deviation from the null hypothesis of 50% chance.[/QUOTE]Seems like someone's taken a semester of an introductory statistics course in high school...
We need real life gaydar that uses the same technology as the motion tracker in Alien.
What if you're bi?
[QUOTE=yawmwen;35987397]What if I like to take it right up the ass, but I'm still straight?[/QUOTE]
Only if balls touch.
[QUOTE=Metalcastr;35987877]We need real life gaydar that uses the same technology as the motion tracker in Alien.[/QUOTE]
theyre comin out of the goddamn walls man
[QUOTE=Snake7;35987240]I'm going to call bullshit. There's really no natural physical deference between gay or straight people, there's no way you could tell just by looking at their plain face.[/QUOTE]
That's not a terribly scientific way to go about things you know
"Study implies there is a physical difference between gay or straight people"
"I call bullshit, there is no phyiscal difference between gay or straight people"
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