Gaydar - Not Just A Website
Think you can spot a gay at twenty paces? Do you profess to have spot on gaydar? You could be more right than you realise, according to a new study.
A research team at Tufts University, near Boston, Massachusetts, USA, claims that subjects could guess fairly accurately whether men were gay or straight by looking at photos of their faces.
The small study sample of 15 undergraduate students were shown photos of 90 men, 45 gay and 45 straight from online dating sites and Facebook.
The researchers found that subjects could accurately determine in 50 milliseconds whether the men were gay or not about 60% of the time. Head researcher Nicholas Rule says all the subjects were accurate 55% to 70% of the time.
“When allowed ten seconds to view the photos, the accuracy did not increase by much,” Rule said.
The aim of the study is to consider the possibility that gaydar might be part of some human evolutionary purpose; you’ll score a better chance at mating if you pick the right person. Although given that we can’t pro-create, there’s obviously more to this than making babies.
Rule says that next, he would like to extend the study to female faces. There will be an ongoing study looking into what about the facial features led the subjects to their conclusions. Rule says that previous studies have shown that life experiences can affect facial features.
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leverarchfile
said on the 26th Aug, 2008
Anthony Mahera
said on the 27th Aug, 2008