One Thanksgiving, I got into an argument with my cousin. He stated that "If you think someone is gay, they probably are." I thought this was ridiculous. The subtext of the assertion was that you can safely discriminate against people based on your unconfirmed guess about what their sexual orientation is. While I immediately rejected the result of the assertion, that we should discriminate against people, I completely ignored the premise, that you could tell what someone's sexual orientation by looking.
It turns out I was wrong. We've all heard about Gaydar, the word coined for the supposed uncanny ability of gay people to recognize other gay people. Is it true? Did I believe this before our argument? I always assumed that there were agreed upon signals being passed, or that mutual eye contact like flirting was giving the final clues. But a study that came out last month that was reported in the Science podcast (see the January 24, 2008 episode at time stamp 34:50) says that people have a highly accurate perception of sexual orientation based on a very brief glance.
The study was apparently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and was conducted by Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal. It was a repeat of a 1994 study where the competency of professors was evaluated by people that didn't know the professor. They flashed facial pictures only at the test subjects and asked them what they thought. The correlation was very accurate, matching the student surveys taken from people that had spent an entire term with the teacher.
They conducted the survey again, this time asking subjects what the sexual orientation of the person in the photograph was. A quick glance was all that was required for most people to accurately judge the sexual orientation of the person in the picture. In fact, they said that if the people were allowed to think about it longer, the accuracy dropped to below 70%.
So it seems that Gaydar is not limited to gays.
The question I have then, is why do most heterosexuals totally ignore this input? I know sexual orientation of people is not something I ever wonder about. I just assume everyone is straight, and I have to be shaken out of regular thinking modes to even wonder about homosexuality. Anybody can spot outrageously overt gay behavior, but not many homosexuals are that obvious.
They stated that this effect of recognizing something in a quick glance is also related to romance. They said the same brain pathways would be used in determining love at first sight. And I always thought that quick attractions were somehow delusional. I guess you have to trust your gut.
I still stand by my original position that people should not be discriminated against, but that's just my own idealism. The important lesson here is that people are making subconscious decisions about others. I'm sure these decisions are not restricted to sexual orientation. I wonder how many people make snap decisions about me when I meet to discuss technical matters? I wonder if they also choose whether they think you are knowledgeable and competent from the first glance? Since I am in sales, selling technical equipment, it would be useful for me to know if people thought I was full of crap before I even opened my mouth. I've been in a perennial discussion with my boss about the impression your car makes to people. I always thought this was stupid and shallow, but you have to wonder how many opportunities are missed or made based on first impressions.
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