Automatic Ability To Assess Sexual Orientation?

[Left Leanings]

This sounds like a load of tosh to me, but this is the latest from the world of scientific endeavour:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9269298/In-blink-of-an-eye-our-gaydar-clicks-into-action.html

Apparently, most peeps have an inbuilt "gaydar", and can assess a person's sexual orientation within the blink of an eye.

Research was carried out, and people were shown pictures of the faces of men and women, and asked what their sexual orientation was. In a high number of cases they got it right, even if the pictures were presented upside down.

Meself, I think it's crap :star:

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Yeah..sounds like bollocks to me but ya never know.

[Veovis]

Here in Portland, it's queer until proven straight; no need for any fancy homo-detecting powers.

At least, that's my attitude when asking men out.

[Kenco Smooth]

This finding in itself is not unique to this paper, which cites 5 previous studies that show the same results.



Rule NO, Ambady N (2008) Brief Exposures: Male Sexual Orientation Is Accurately Perceived at 50 Ms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44: 1100–1105. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2007.12.001 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2007.12.001).
Rule NO, Ambady N, Adams RB Jr, Macrae CN (2008) Accuracy and Awareness in the Perception and Categorization of Male Sexual Orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95: 1019–1028. doi:10.1037/a0013194 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013194).
Rule NO, Ambady N, Hallett KC (2009) Female Sexual Orientation Is Perceived Accurately, Rapidly, and Automatically from the Face and Its Features. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45: 1245–1251. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.07.010 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.07.010).
Rule NO, Ishii K, Ambady N, Rosen KS, Hallett KC (2011) Found in Translation: Cross-Cultural Consensus in the Accurate Categorization of Male Sexual Orientation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37: 1499–1507. doi:10.1177/0146167211415630 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167211415630).
Rule NO, Rosen KS, Slepian ML, Ambady N (2011) Mating Interest Improves Women’s Accuracy in Judging Male Sexual Orientation. Psychological Science 22: 881–886. doi:10.1177/0956797611412394 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611412394).



I'm a bit perplexed by the reaction some posters have here to immediately doubt or jump on a finding without even taking a cursory look at the research itself. It's understandable when such research is behind paywalls but PLOS one, the journal which this research was published in, is open access. If anyone wants to take a closer look at the findings of this paper (which are actually rather boring and technical) it's here. (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036671)

[ForgedConscience]

Wow... so I guess that's why I'm right so often about which men are interested. Oh wait.

EDIT: I'm not refuting the concept of some sort of ability to approximate sexual orientation, I just very much doubt it is precise.

[Left Leanings]

Wow... so I guess that's why I'm right so often about which men are interested. Oh wait.

Exactly.

I certainly can't tell who is gay or not, simply by looking at their faces. And I'm pretty confident most peeps here would say the same :) :star:

[NewLeft]

Unless they're the out and proud type, I can't really tell..

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

I love that there has been scientific studies into the gaydar phenomenon.