A new study on “gaydar” yields surprising results
Journal of Homosexuality. The author was Fabio Fasoli from the University of Surrey in England.He took around 130 participants and played audio recordings of other people.
He then asked them to say whether they thought the speakers were gay or heterosexual.In a second study, rather than a binary “gay/straight” choice, he asked participants to rate speakers on a Kinsey-like scale.The study explored audio clues to sexuality, not how people dress or present themselves visually.Fasoli noted that some gay people may talk in a more uninhibited, natural way with their gay friends.
They may then adapt their manner of speech around gay people. Has this led to us being able to better pick up on queer cues via speech?It seems not.The study found both straight and gay participants were more likely to categorize speakers as straight.
In fact, they labeled so many of the speakers as straight that they both tended to miss the gay speakers.Secondly, both groups were slightly better at identifying gay women than gay men.Gay participants were slightly more likely to identify speakers as gay, but not necessarily accurately.
