Comments on: Gaydar Study Calibration

By: Brains – Male and Female? | ronnerio

Brains – Male and Female? | ronnerio — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 17:45:41 +0000

[…] is another critique that points to a general problem with biological […]

By: Lunad

Lunad — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:08:00 +0000

Given that tests of ESP consistently show numbers close to this gaydar study on guessing an unseen symbol, and that anything having to due with sex gets even better results on ESP tests, you could argue that it is extrasensory perception just as much as innate biology.

By: Tessla Rabin

Tessla Rabin — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Lots of mixed up, confused people out there on all sides, huh?

By: Tessla Rabin

Tessla Rabin — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:55:00 +0000

Amazing how much impact the media has given to a mere 3.5% of the population. How many single by choice straight people are out there who are unable to extend benefits to someone they might care to? Yet, not a peep out of the media on that angle.
3.5% and same sex marriage has become a political hot button. Kudos to the media for keeping the truly important issues in front of us.

By: Seymourmillen

Seymourmillen — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:03:00 +0000

i agree. facebook photos are not a neutral stimulus and may have uncontrolled aspects in the expression of the face etc. if these results were replicated with photos taken with the same expression/orientation/magnification, the results might be more valid, though again i’m really not sure what the overall aim of these studies are- at best they seem to be operating on a more deterministic view of sexuality which can be harmful.

By: annette boehm

annette boehm — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:37:00 +0000

If you’re interested in the fluidity of sexual preference, I highly recommend Lisa Diamond’s book “Sexual Fluidity” — her long-term study follows a group of women and finds that their sexual orientation changes over time. The changes can go any direction, from bisexual or lesbian to straight, or from straight to lesbian or bi.

By: anon

anon — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:11:00 +0000

The casual observation that female sexuality is a bit more fluid.

By: Kiki

Kiki — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:54:00 +0000

i’m scared to ask what you mean by ‘conventional wisdom,’ but…what *do* you mean?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 05:02:00 +0000

Thank you for laying into that study! The main thing (among others) that bothers me is the false dichotomy of classifying the faces as “gay” or “straight,” with nothing in between.

By: anon

anon — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:09:00 +0000

I’m not familiar with the study in question, but it strikes me as consistent with other studies I recall, as well as with conventional wisdom.

By: kdlmn

kdlmn — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Thanks! Isn’t that precisely what Lisa Diamond’s long-term study on female sexual fluidity found?

By: mimimur

mimimur — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:15:00 +0000

I would also like to point out that there are cultural expressions that haven’t been removed in the pitctures, such as make up, grooming of the eyebrows or their expression in the photos.

But this study makes me a bit uneasy, seeing as the gay community is pretty much agreed that the gaydar is based on stereotypes and cultural expressions. Acnedotal as it may be, the dominant story of gay people going abroad or across the pond is that their gaydar is compromised due to the different norms in gender roles and stereotypes surrounding sexuality – for example, people comming to Scendinavia often read almost all men as gay due to the mainstream fashion being that close to what they consider a queer expression. With both the gay and straight community being so diverse and so overlapping, this study really comes across as an attempt to point out gay people as different.

By: anon

anon — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 08:24:00 +0000

Each cell contains the number of women (on the left) and men (right) who reported themselves according to the row header at year 0, and according to the column header at year 10.

Briefly summarized: bisexual men and women are about as likely or not to report a different orientation a decade later, and lesbians are more likely to change than remain lesbian. Gay men and heterosexual men and women are much more likely to stay put.

Just so no one feels obligated to make the following replies: small sample sizes, hand-wringing about complexity of identity, &c.

By: kdlmn

kdlmn — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 07:37:00 +0000

Sorry, Phillip, I don’t understand your table at all. Could you explain, please?

By: decius

decius — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 04:03:00 +0000

So, people can identify straight or gay significantly better than chance (p<.002), based on three frames of picture. Any fewer, and most participants would honestly deny that they had seen a face.

The mean hit rate (percentage chance that the face of a gay person was correctly identified, higher values are more accurate) was 42% for male faces and 38% for female faces, while the false positive rate (percent chance that the face of a straight person was incorrectly identified, lower values are more accurate) was 36% for male faces and 25% for female faces.

Note that that's LESS than random accuracy at identifying the orientation of people who are gay, made up by significantly better accuracy at identifying the orientation of people who are straight.