After seeing faces for less than a blink of an eye, college
students have accuracy greater than mere chance in judging
others sexual orientation. Their “gaydar” persisted even when
they saw the photos upside-down, and gay versus straight
judgments were more accurate for womens faces than for mens. The
findings, published May 16 in the open-access online journal
PLoS ONE, suggest that we unconsciously make gay and straight
distinctions. “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,”
said lead author Joshua Tabak, a psychology graduate student at
the University of Washington. “This information confronts us in
everyday life.” Vivian Zayas at Cornell University is the other
author of the paper. Funding was provided by Cornell University
and the National Science Foundation. Tabak says that our ability
to spontaneously assess sexual orientation based on observation
or instinct conflicts with the assertion that if people just
kept their sexual orientati