Facebook Knows You're Gay

International News, By Joal, 22nd September, 2009

Facebook can out gay men, but probably not gay women or bisexuals, according to two students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While their study hasn’t been published, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree analysed 1,544 men who said they were straight, 21 who said they were bisexual, and 33 who said they were gay, all of whom used social networking site Facebook. Their study found that even if you don’t disclose your sexuality to a social networking site, an analysis of the gender and persuasion your friends and associates will give away all your secrets.

“Gay men had proportionally more gay friends than straight men, giving the computer program a way to infer a person’s sexuality based on their friends,” reports the Boston Globe.

Raising interesting questions about online privacy, the study used ten men who the two students knew to be gay, but who did not disclose it, to test their program out. And apparently it worked, the ten mens’ sexual preferences were given away by the gender and sexuality of their friends.

”[The study] pulls the rug out from a whole policy and technology perspective that the point is to give you control over your information – because you don’t have control over your information,” one of the students told the Boston Globe.

Their study, titled ‘Gaydar’, hasn’t been published as yet, but the men say they are looking for a scientific journal that may be interested.

Your Thoughts

meezon04

said ages ago

I'd like to see them try this with my friend's list - sure there's a lot of gay men but I'm sure there's way more straight chicks!

Dsquare

said ages ago

You'de kind of have to wonder how accurate there results are given their study included approx. 1,500 straight men and only 33 gay men. And how many of those 1,500 "straight" men really were straight. Still, I suppose if someone wanted to find out if an openly gay man was gay this might work, however what the point of that would be is a little unclear.

jimmy_

said ages ago

Yeah it's heavily flawed, but if you come across a hottie on stalkbook with no sexuality stated then it doesn't hurt to see what their friends are into haha

Phazz

said ages ago

This is why I set it so people who aren't on my friends list can't see my friends, and only certain friends can see my other friends.

Flaneur

said ages ago

Eh. I find it weirder that facebook puts random single gay men in my 'Who you may know?' who I don't know and don't (seemingly) have mutual friends with. It's strange having all these gaydar profile photos pop up there. I guess at least I can put name to nipple now, though.

Gwen Stefani

said ages ago

It's worse when ex lovers are displayed. I just have to delete immediately.

OneTrickPony

said ages ago

i kinda wish it was more obvious for us lemons that don't look like your 'stereotypical lesbian', to be guessed out. i don't have my orientation on Facebook, but i suppose it doesn't even matter considering i know virtually everyone on my list. haha.

Xiphias-Gladius

said ages ago

This is very true. Kind of urky as well.

ammonite

said ages ago

that is terrible terrible media-science, which you have played into by reporting. "While their study hasn’t been published," LOL! i wonder why. "Facebook can out gay men, but probably not gay women or bisexuals," i would have thought lesbians would have more lesbian friends than straight women, but it wouldn't surprise me if they hadn't even looked at that, and just focused on gay men as 99.9999999% of 'science' and actual science does.

Dion

said ages ago

Well that wouldn't be hard. One of my photo albums on FB is of me particapating in this years Mardi Gras. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to work that one out. Cheers, Dion.

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