Gaydar: faster than the speed of light
According to research conducted by Nick Rule and Nalini Ambady, it takes just 50ms (that's milliseconds) to determine a man's sexual orientation. Twenty-two male and sixty-eight female undergrads were shown photos of 90 men's faces (half were homosexual) for 33ms, 50ms, 6500ms or 10,000ms and were asked to guess whether or not they were gay.
It was at the 50ms timeframe -- long enough for the faces to be consciously seen -- that the students' could accurately deduce sexuality in 57 per cent of the cases. Accuracy didn't improve when subjects viewed images for longer periods of time.
"The finding that male sexual orientation can be accurately perceived in such a short period of time is striking," the researchers said. "Although previous work has shown that 'thin slices' of behavior are remarkably rich in providing information about people, none have sliced as thin as 50ms."
Research dollars well spent.
It was at the 50ms timeframe -- long enough for the faces to be consciously seen -- that the students' could accurately deduce sexuality in 57 per cent of the cases. Accuracy didn't improve when subjects viewed images for longer periods of time.
"The finding that male sexual orientation can be accurately perceived in such a short period of time is striking," the researchers said. "Although previous work has shown that 'thin slices' of behavior are remarkably rich in providing information about people, none have sliced as thin as 50ms."
Research dollars well spent.