http://www.courant.com/feature...062750.story?track=rss
So now when I see Casiotech-like people, I am most likely right in thinking they are gay .
Not only does "gaydar" exist, suggests a study out of Tufts University, but it can work pretty fast.
Some people say they can tell the sexual orientation of folks with little information, and now a study gives them data to back up their claims.
Published in July's Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the study claims that people could guess fairly accurately ("better than chance") whether men were gay or straight by looking at photos of their faces.
For the study, 15 undergraduate students, both male and female, were shown photos of faces of 90 men, evenly divided between gay and straight. The photos were taken from Internet personal ads and from Facebook. The study's lead author, graduate student Nicholas Rule, says men were used in this study for convenience, because they have a greater presence on the Internet than women.
The researchers found that subjects could accurately determine in 50 milliseconds ? one-twentieth of a second ? whether the men were gay or straight about 60 percent of the time. Rule says all the subjects were accurate 55 percent to 70 percent of the time.
When subjects were allowed to look at the photos for up to 10 seconds, they weren't much better at judging sexual orientation than in 50 milliseconds. But when subjects had only 33 milliseconds to consider each photo, their judgments were significantly less accurate.
In the study, the researchers consider the possibility that the ability to suss out the sexual orientation of others serves an evolutionary purpose; knowing who you've got a shot at a date with helps a lot in assessing your mating opportunities. Rule says he would like to further explore this idea with another study using photos of women's faces.
On the other hand, he says the study might just be an indication that we're much better than previously thought at perceiving overall characteristics of others, of which sexual orientation is just one of many.
Rule has made something of a specialty out of facial features and snap judgments. Earlier this year, he published a study suggesting that certain facial features of companies' CEOs helped predict the profits of their businesses.
The debate over whether homosexuality has its roots in nurture or nature has prompted studies in recent years on everything from voices to hair whorl patterns. Rule says his study doesn't address the question, because previous studies have shown that life experience can affect facial features. It also doesn't address what it was about the faces that led subjects to their conclusions. He says an ongoing study is looking at that.
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
Originally posted by: bignateyk
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
How so?
Originally posted by: bignateyk
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
How so?
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
evenly divided between gay and straight.
Originally posted by: OdiN
Mine went off coming in here. The OP must be gay.
Originally posted by: sdifox
Originally posted by: bignateyk
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
How so?
There are more straight men than gay men.
Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
So now when I see Casiotech-like people, I am most likely right in thinking they are gay .
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...mlgi38&feature=related
skip to minute 3...john barrowman gaydar test heh
Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...mlgi38&feature=related
skip to minute 3...john barrowman gaydar test heh
Interestingly John Barrowman got 60% right too...
Although number 6 has to be gay surely? I hope someone on the forums really isn't like that...
Originally posted by: sdifox
Originally posted by: bignateyk
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
How so?
There are more straight men than gay men.
Originally posted by: Injury
Originally posted by: bignateyk
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
How so?
Because there is a 50/50 chance of probability of "gay" or "not gay"... it's like answering false on all questions on a true false quiz when you didn't study... unless the teacher decides to throw a curve ball, probability says that you'll get half of them correct.
If they used 50% pictures of gay people and 50% pictures of straight people, and if you said that all of the people in the pictures were gay, you'd be 50% correct.
If they went with a more real-life scenario of 75% straight and 25% gay, then you'd be 75% correct if you guessed all of them were straight.
The study was really a guessing game. When people get 50-70% of them correct, then it's usually safe to chalk that one up to coincidence.
Not to mention that merely showing photographs of people is hardly a scientific way to make a study like this.
Originally posted by: illusion88
Originally posted by: sdifox
Originally posted by: bignateyk
Originally posted by: sdifox
err, just pure guessing would statistically get you more than 50% right.
How so?
There are more straight men than gay men.
read the article