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Gaydar really exists: Scientists prove gay people are more able to pick out fellow homosexuals
Last updated at 7:18 PM on 27th May 2010
Gay people really do have an inbuilt radar that helps them seek out like-minded souls, scientists have shown.
This sixth sense, or 'gaydar', ensures they pay more attention to detail, allowing them to pluck potential partners out of a crowd.
The Dutch researchers looked at whether straight and gay people focus their attention differently when faced with a problem.
Eagle eye: Willie Garson plays Stanford Blatch in Sex and the City 2, a character well known for his finely attuned gaydar.
A total of 42 men and women were shown pictures of outlines of large squares and rectangles, each of which was packed with smaller shapes.
Our brains are wired to take in the bigger picture, meaning that if we are shown a square filled with rectangles and asked what is inside, we can easily be fooled into saying 'squares'.
When the men and women were asked similar questions, the heterosexuals replied more quickly but were less accurate, the journal Frontiers in Cognition reports.
The homosexuals took longer but got more answers right, particularly when asked about the smaller shapes, suggesting they were able to see the small details as well as the bigger picture.
Or they were able to see the trees as well as the wood.
In everyday life, this attention to detail could help them work out people's sexuality.
Researcher Dr Lorenza Colzato, of Leiden University in the Netherlands
‘This perceptual skill allows homosexuals to recognise other gay people faster and we think it's because they are much more analytic than heterosexuals.'
Adopting such a perceptual style presumably increases the likelihood of detecting perceptual clues indicative of homosexual orientation, which facilitates finding like-minded social peers and potential friends and sex mates.
Differences in attention to detail have previously been shown among religious groups, with Italian Roman Catholics looking at the bigger picture more than those with secular views and Israeli Orthodox Jews paying less attention to detail than Israeli non-believers.
Dr Colzato said: 'This fits with the strong emphasis on social solidarity in both Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism.'
In contrast, Dutch Calvinists, who are counselled on 'minding their own business', focus on detail rather than the bigger picture.
Hmm ...
Does this really prove the existence of gaydar (or any 6th sense for that matter)? I get the attention to detail and analytic mind results, but think it’s a leap from that to reading others’ sexuality with attention to detail & analytic thought. Gay people more easily recognize one of our own as we look at and for different details. We must be detail oriented. I think that being in a minority so long held as repugnant to society has forced us to be more aware of subtlety and detail. Given that there’s a gay gene, is awareness inherent in that gay gene or a learned behavior?
Based on the results of the two studies, gay Dutch Calvinists should be in bed within 30 seconds of seeing one another; straight Roman Catholics & Orthodox Jews may have trouble identifying women.
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