icanuc Wrote:I can seem to pick up on the men but do have some difficulty with the women. As for clues, I dont know as I seem to know right away as to whether they are or they aren't. They dont have to dress or look anything like the sterotypical gay person looks like or for that matter talk. They can be just an ordinary type...we are all so different but I do pick up that they are gay or bi.
Yep, the way a human's brain works, categorizing people and things, doesn't take a whole bunch of time, thought, or information . . . really. It seems almost instantaneous. And no, they don't have to be Richard Simmons or be waving around a rainbow flag for a person to get it. I think most clues are registered on a subconscious level. The clues trigger a recognition of type, and we look for confirmation.
Some of the other guys said it is in the eyes. I think that is where the final confirmation is. And in my experience, it is when you look in the person's eyes and you can tell that they have been coming to the same conclusion about you as you have been coming to about them.
I have no gaydar and I have wondered why because I pick up on alot of stuff usually other people don't....my conclusion....I think it is because I don't really care. :biggrin:
hello,
I know with me i can tell if someone is gay or not however in todays society it can be slightly more difficult because you do get hetrosexual men who are camp....
I think 'Gaydar' is a modern word that has been slapped onto something that is older than the ages and completely natural. I don't know how accurate mine is, but I do get a sense about guys mostly when I am in their presence that goes beyond noticing their features and mannerisms.
I guess in a way some of us can detect a same gender attraction when the attraction is mutual, weather it is because or hormones, wandering eyes or the obvious flirting I don't know. All I know is I get 'feelings'.
William Lee Adams replicated earlier work by his advisor, Nalini Ambady (now at Tufts University). Ambady's original study, published in 1999, showed that homosexuals were better at correctly identifying sexual orientation from silent videos and photographs than heterosexuals were. Adams' research, started in 2004, focused exclusively on the face; a focal point of social cues in humans.[5][6][7] These observations were enhanced by Ron Smyth and colleagues in 2003.[8] A 2007 study under Ambady found that test subjects could correctly identify gays with better than random accuracy when shown a photo of only the eye. In fact, accuracy was closer to what participants expected their accuracy should be when hairstyle was also included in the image.[9] A 2009 study found that determination of female sexual orientation by similar means was more accurate when a "snap" judgment was made, rather than conscious deliberation.[10][11]
One of the first experiments, according to Malcolm Gladwell, in which an observer could detect homosexuality just by looking at the faces of men, involved Silvan Tomkins.[12]
Researchers at Leiden University and Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition, led by Lorenza Colzato, provide indications on the existence of a gaydar mechanism.[13] By comparing homosexuals and heterosexuals with a series of visual stimuli, homosexuals have shown a significant preference for detail with respect to heterosexuals, indicating that being homosexual is associated with a more analytic perceptual style. Adopting such a perceptual style increases the likelihood to detect perceptual cues indicative of homosexual orientation, which again facilitates finding like-minded, social peers, and potential friends and sex mates. Homosexuals are apparently better trained in making use of the subtle, but distinctive features that they tend to share, including body-movement, gesturing style, and speech patterns. Their attentional control is faster and more efficiently tuned to pick up visual cues correlated with sexual orientation.[13][14]