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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Homo UW Study: Gaydar Is Totes Real

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, May 16, 2012 at 4:29 PM

"Research has shown that people are able to judge sexual orientation from faces with above-chance accuracy, but little is known about how these judgments are formed," says the abstract of a study by Joshua Tabak and Vivian Zayas posted today on PLoS ONE.

Science Codex jumps into the findings: "They cropped the grayscale photos so that only faces, not hairstyles, were visible. For women's faces, participants were 65 percent accurate in telling the difference between gay and straight faces when the photos flashed on a computer screen. Even when the faces were flipped upside down, participants were 61 percent accurate in telling the two apart. At 57 percent accuracy, they had a harder time differentiating gay men from straight men."

Going back to the full study—titled "The Roles of Featural and Configural Face Processing in Snap Judgments of Sexual Orientation"—Tabak and Zayas proceed with more detail:

[T]he finding that judgment accuracy remained above chance for upside-down faces strongly suggests that sexual orientation can be inferred from featural processing alone. Evidence suggests that if a trait can be inferred from featural processing alone, it may be inferred spontaneously and unintentionally in everyday life. Thus, the present results imply that in casual interactions, people may unwittingly accurately perceive others’ sexual orientation from brief glances at their faces. If so, it would appear that minority sexual orientation is not the concealed stigma that many argue it is. Indeed, the need to protect gay people from discrimination would seem increasingly urgent to the extent that minority sexual orientation is tacitly inferred from aspects of personal appearance that are routinely available for inspection.

In a related question, does my writing look gay?

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Comments (27) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

No, but it does make your ass look big.

Sorry, nobody else would tell you.

Posted by Chris B

on May 16, 2012 at 4:36 PM

No, but with that lisp, it sure sounds gay.

Posted by GentleFairy on May 16, 2012 at 4:45 PM

Chris is right.

Actually, the study only applies to college aged people.

Who may have more conscious exposure to out gays growing up than prior generations thought they did.

What I find amusing is that, in lore, both women and men who care about a gender preference lie to themselves about someone not being the "wrong" choice when they want the answer to be Yes. Usually tied to alcohol impairment and ovulation period.

Which is why you shouldn't have a female wingwoman on the same cycle as you, as they may also think "he's cute" when that might not be the correct interpretation.

Neat study showed women, as they get drunk, are less likely to want to sleep with someone, whereas for men (both preferences) being more drunk increases your desire to sleep with someone. Which was later televised.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 16, 2012 at 5:04 PM

My GF has gaydar that, anecdotally, only works on men.

Posted by venomlash on May 16, 2012 at 5:06 PM

This is so cool, although it doesn't seem like a huge effect. Wonder if another study can replicate this.

Of course, OKCupid was all over this science years ago: http://www.okcupid.com/the-gaydar-test

Posted by Mattini on May 16, 2012 at 5:07 PM

So McKenna can come out of the closet now? 'cause he totally sets of my gaydar.

Posted by StuckInUtah on May 16, 2012 at 5:09 PM

OFF

Posted by StuckInUtah on May 16, 2012 at 5:10 PM

Also, I love that they controlled for hairstyles. Clearly the study was designed by a mo in the know.

Posted by Mattini on May 16, 2012 at 5:10 PM

two words: GAY. MOUTH. it is a thing. it will get you.

Posted by Adrian Ryan on May 16, 2012 at 5:38 PM

@8 yeah, but merkins can totally throw you.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 16, 2012 at 5:42 PM

In an unrelated story, Marcus Bachmann has announced that he will no longer pose for photos.

Posted by Ballard Pimp on May 16, 2012 at 6:16 PM

Yeah, this doesn't seem like a very strong effect to me. 7 points above guessing randomly.

Posted by STJA on May 16, 2012 at 7:27 PM

It's a very interesting study, with a possible beneficial side-effect. If facial physiognomy bears any relation to sexual orientation, it's going to be harder for the 'phobes to argue that it's not inborn.

Posted by Brooklyn Reader on May 16, 2012 at 7:42 PM

Obama sets off the NORAD Gaydar every time he flies into DC.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on May 16, 2012 at 8:35 PM

I wandered downtown bending over and staring at the faces of random men between my legs so their faces were upside down. They all looked gay.

Posted by bedipped on May 16, 2012 at 8:41 PM

On a scale of Rock Hudson to RuPaul, your writing is about as gay as Lance Bass.

Posted by J from Oregon on May 16, 2012 at 9:56 PM

Your writing is only gay when you use "totes" in the post title.

Posted by pfffter on May 16, 2012 at 10:53 PM

Gay is a state of consciousness. Mind states are analogous to brain states. Brain states are universally reflected/communicated in both universal (like happiness) and culturally specific (like flirtiness) facial expressions. Hence if you are gay (mind state) your brain is structured and functioning with a specific set of synaptic patterns (brain state) that makes it so. The gay way your brain is working is reflected in how you hold your face too.

The study shows a real pattern. It's not 100% because A) many people are bad at reading facial expressions. This ranges from autistic (almost always can't read expressions) to your mom (knows exactly how You're feeling from 100 yards away); B) not all personality data is well repped by expression; C) some people are better at controlling expression than others.

Note that just because your brain is doing something does not make it innate; generally speaking the nature nurture dichotomy is false and arguments around it specious.

Posted by Mentalyentel on May 16, 2012 at 11:05 PM

That's fabulous.

Posted by malcolmxy on May 16, 2012 at 11:39 PM

@5,12: Oh, this is so much worse than it looks. ~50% of the faces were gay, and participants probably assumed 50%. With a real-world proportion (let's say 5%), and participants knowing that that was the proportion, that level of strength of gaydar would mean that for every guess of "gay," 80% of the time it would actually be a straight person.

And by the way, PLoS ONE is a journal with some serious reputation problems.

Posted by Margaret L. on May 17, 2012 at 12:58 AM

In the effort to give heterosexuals a voice on SLOG...here is the most un-gay thing I've seen in a long time:

http://www.heavy.com/action/girls/2012/0…

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on May 17, 2012 at 4:53 AM

it's a not a huge effect from faces alone, but when you throw in hair, voice, and gait.... so much more information becomes available. Also just, you know, the way they interact with people of each sex.

Posted by drivel on May 17, 2012 at 5:37 AM

@22: Well, yes, of course. But that just drives home the point that their particular finding -- (hopelessly weak) gaydar from facial features alone -- is useless.

Posted by Margaret L. on May 17, 2012 at 7:32 AM

I wonder if they had allowed more than a split second, would that alter the results. If people were allowed to dwell on a face for a full second or more would the accurate judgements jump?

Posted by Allyn on May 17, 2012 at 8:44 AM

@20 - Totally with you. It would be nice if someone would actually test gaydar using real-world frequencies. It would also be interesting to analyze their faces and see if any of them were more or less easy to detect as heterosexual or homosexual. (And then of course you could look at facial structure.)

Posted by STJA on May 17, 2012 at 8:55 AM