Women can spot gays with gaydar:Study

The research, conducted in the University of Toronto, delineated women who are at the peak of their ovulation or in a romantic mood can easily judge homosexual and heterosexual men by looking at their faces.

Three experiments were carried out by the scientists to monitor the ability of women to spot a gay.

40 heterosexual women tested
In the first experiment of the study, published in the journal ‘Psychological Science,’ images of 80 men with same facial expressions was shown to 40 heterosexual women, who were ovulating. Out of 80 men, half of them were straight and others were gay.

Researchers found women at the peak of their biological cycle were accurate in guessing a man’s sexual orientation.

“These findings suggest women’s accuracy may vary across the fertility cycle because men’s sexual orientation is relevant to conception. It implies that inducing romantic or mating-related thoughts improved accuracy in identifying men’s sexual orientations.”—Lead Author Professor Nicholas Rule

For the second experiment, women were quizzed to differentiate between straight and lesbians. Nearly 34 women were shown the images of 100 straight women and 100 lesbians. Women, even in their hormonal cycles, failed to recognize either of them.

Lead author Professor Nicholas Rule said, “This effect is not apparent when a woman is judging another female’s orientation. This suggests that fertility influences a heterosexual woman’s attention to potential mates rather than merely increasing sensitivity to sexual orientation or nonverbal cues more generally.”

Women in romantic mood
During the third test, around half of the women “primed with a mating goal” were asked to read a romantic story to evaluate their predictions.

While comparing the feedback, it was found that women with romantic approach succeeded in distinguishing between gay and straight men.

“These findings suggest women’s accuracy may vary across the fertility cycle because men’s sexual orientation is relevant to conception. It implies that inducing romantic or mating-related thoughts improved accuracy in identifying men’s sexual orientations,” said Rule.

Incomplete results
The study concluded that women in romantic mood or in hormonal cycle have gaydar, i.e ability to make out between men with different sexual behaviors.

Though the study has outlined the extra-ordinary powers of a woman, it lacks the basis with the help of which women make such conclusions.

Besides, no other factors like body language and facial expressions have been epitomized with which differentiation can be done.