Posted on 01/27/2008 8:20:46 AM PST by mngran2
Talk about "gaydar." In just a fraction of a second, people can accurately judge the sexual orientation of other individuals by glancing at their faces, according to new research. The finding builds on the growing theory that the subconscious mind detects and probably guides much more of human behavior than is realized. Humans are remarkably good at making snap judgments about others. In a hallmark study conducted by psychologists Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal in 1994, people shown 2-second video clips of professors teaching formed opinions about the professors' teaching abilities that were uncannily similar to evaluations written by students at the end of a semester. The results led psychologists to begin questioning what else people might detect in a glance.
Ambady and colleague Nicholas Rule, both at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, wondered about sexual orientation. They showed men and women photos of 90 faces belonging to homosexual men and heterosexual men for intervals ranging from 33 milliseconds to 10 seconds. When given 100 milliseconds or more to view a face, participants correctly identified sexual orientation nearly 70% of the time. Volunteers were less accurate at shorter durations, and their accuracy did not get better at durations beyond 100 milliseconds, the team reports in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. "What is most interesting is that increased exposure time did not improve the results," says Ambady.
Romantic attraction likely works just as fast, notes psychologist Paul Eastwick of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. "If people make accurate judgments about sexually relevant aspects of a person this quickly," he says, "you have to stop and wonder how we size up one another's romantic potential in a matter of milliseconds."
Psychologist David Kenny of the University of Connecticut, Storrs, says the finding demonstrates the brain's remarkable ability to make fast yet accurate appraisals. Still, he notes that with some of the images, accuracy regularly fell below 50%. It's possible that some faces are just hard to read.
I agree that humans can spot stuff like this almost instantly. But, predictive qualities differ depending on many factors. For example, in my long experience as a straight male, I can spot a homosexual male much more quickly than a straight female can. That’s a little counter intuitive, but I think it’s true across the board. I wonder if females can detect lesbians as adroitly.
Maybe it’s because straight men don’t confuse effeminate behavior with sensitivity.
And no, I don’t always confirm my gut feelings. I don’t need to. They have been proven to be accurate enough when applied to the folks who subsequently acknowledge their preference.
First two top teeth right of center are fake. Just like the rest of her.
Good point. Guys with earrings are a strong quick hint.
>Romantic attraction likely works just as fast, notes psychologist Paul Eastwick of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “If people make accurate judgments about sexually relevant aspects of a person this quickly,” he says, “you have to stop and wonder how we size up one another’s romantic potential in a matter of milliseconds.”
I’m more concerned about this type of snap judgement. It obviously hooks women up with a lot of losers in my opinion. That and hand and shoe size judgements ;-)
I always knew I could judge books by their covers, especially those froo-froo romance novels with Fabio on the cover.
Yeah, I’ve wondered about that, too. As a straight male, I can almost invariably recognize a homosexual male. With lesbians, though, I’m not so accurate. Gals who are obviously “butch” are easy to spot, but I’ll admit that I’ve occasionally been surprised to find out that a woman is a lesbian or a bisexual. In fact, since I’m in San Francisco, this actually happens quite a bit. There are a fair number of lesbian and bisexual young women around here who seem, to me at least, more or less indistinguishable from the straight women.
I thought one woman at work was straight, but she is lesbian. Later I found out that it wasn’t true when her lover sent her flowers. She let on that it was from her boyfriend, but it eventually came out it wasn’t. She is 23 and very hot.
Geez she loves those designer Mao jackets.
Heard she’s been tapped to play the Joker since Heath bumped himself off.
In a crowded and confined plane I am thinking that these guys could be carrying Tuberculosis that is highly resistant to most or all antibiotics, MRSA 300, parasites at they pass out the food, etc.
I wonder what they do in the spare time as they lay over in one city after another?
70% success rate is hardly chance or the sham phrenology was. Given more time than 100 miliseconds, I would bet that that percentage would go up.
My dad has dated a flight attendant for about 20+ years and it is well known in the industry that (she said) about 85% of the male flight attendants on any given airline, are gay.
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You’re right. This may prove that women are just as shallow as men are when it comes to deciding who to hook up with. Like we need a study to know physical attraction is the main reason. You only find out about money later on, not in the first few seconds. Guys see an iffy gal and if it ain’t there, move on. The gals are smart enough to size a guy up and down if he isn’t the sexiest thing and determine if he could be worth something. If so, they will try to find out, because hey, they can always fake it. Just gotta get pregnant and you got yourself a piece of that for a LONG time.
Or, maybe the finding shows that 70% of people assume an identity given to them by other people. Hmmmm...
Or, maybe the finding shows that 70% of people assume an identity given to them by other people. Hmmmm...
They might not be accurate especially if other people say that a particular looks like whatever. Could this be a stereotype?
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