We do have a ‘gaydar’

The challenge for the PA is this: to create an enabling environment, in which 500 parents feel encouraged to offer their rich array of potential contributions, says the writer. File photo

The challenge for the PA is this: to create an enabling environment, in which 500 parents feel encouraged to offer their rich array of potential contributions, says the writer. File photo

Published May 21, 2012

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London - It’s said you can tell a lot about someone from a first impression.

Apparently many of us can even guess whether a person is gay or straight after only a brief glimpse of their face, a study suggests.

Researchers found most people they tested had an inbuilt “gaydar”.

Participants were shown images of faces, free of make-up, jewellery or hair, which may have given clues.

They guessed the gay men correctly 57 percent of the time, and gay women 65 percent of the time. Each of the 129 college students surveyed saw 96 photos.

Psychologist Joshua Tabak, who led the study at Washington University, said the results suggested there may be an instinctive feel for sexuality. He said: “It may be similar to how we don’t have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white. This information confronts us in everyday life.”

The study, published in journal PLoS ONE, attributed the lower score for men to the participants making more “false alarm” errors.

Tabak said they could have been more likely to mistake straight men for gay because they were more familiar with the concept of gay men than they were of lesbians. - Daily Mail

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