Posted on 09/12/2007 2:10:02 PM PDT by presidio9
An individual's body motion and body type can offer subtle cues about their sexual orientation, but casual observers seem better able to read those cues in gay men than in lesbians, according to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"We already know that men and women are built differently and walk differently from each other and that casual observers use this information as clues in making a range of social judgments," said lead author Kerri Johnson, UCLA assistant professor of communication studies. "Now we've found that casual observers can use gait and body shape to judge whether a stranger is gay or straight with a small but perceptible amount of accuracy."
Johnson and colleagues at New York University and Texas A&M measured the hips, waists and shoulders of eight male and eight female volunteers, half of whom were gay and half straight. The volunteers then walked on a treadmill for two minutes as a three-dimensional motion-capture system similar to those used by the movie industry to create animated figures from living models made measurements of the their motions, allowing researchers to track the precise amount of shoulder swagger and hip sway in their gaits.
Based on these measurements, the researchers determined that the gay subjects tended to have more gender-incongruent body types than their straight counterparts (hourglass figures for men, tubular bodies for women) and body motions (hip-swaying for men, shoulder-swaggering for women) than their straight counterparts.
In addition, 112 undergraduate observers were shown videos of the backsides of the volunteers as they walked at various speeds on the treadmill. The observers were able to determine the volunteers' sexual orientation with an overall rate of accuracy that exceeded chance, even though they could not see the volunteers' faces or the details of their clothing. Interestingly, the casual observers were much more accurate in judging the orientation of males than females; they correctly categorized the sexual orientation of men with more than 60 percent accuracy, but their categorization of women did not exceeded chance.
The findings build on recent research that shows that casual observers can often correctly identify sexual orientation with very limited information. A 1999 Harvard study, for example, found that just by looking at the photographs of seated strangers, college undergraduates were able to judge sexual orientation accurately 55 percent of the time.
"Studies like ours are raising questions about the value of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," Johnson said. "If casual observers can determine sexual orientation with minimal information, then the value in concealing this information certainly appears questionable. Given that we all appear to be able to deduce this information to some degree with just a glance, more comprehensive policies may be required to protect gays against discrimination based on their sexual orientation."
The findings also are part of mounting evidence suggesting that sexual orientation may actually be what social scientists call a "master status category," or a defining characteristic that observers cannot help but notice and which has been scientifically shown to color all subsequent social dealings with others.
"Once you know a person's sexual orientation, the fact has consequences for all subsequent interactions, and our findings suggest that this category of information can be deduced from subtle clues in body movement," Johnson said.
Reference: Kerri L. Johnson, Simone Gill, Victoria Reichman, and Louis G. Tassinary "Swagger, Sway, and Sexuality: Judging Sexual Orientation From Body Motion and Morphology", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 93, No. 3, pp. 321–334.
Video available at: http://www.apa.org/journals/supplemental/psp_93_3_321/Supplement1.mov
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of California, Los Angeles.
Hence the term, “light in the loafers.”
Possible BenBurch alert. ;)
Title: Aerosmith - Walk This Way lyrics
backstroke lover always hidin’ ‘neath the covers
till I talked to your daddy, he say
he said “you ain’t seen nothin’ till you’re down on a muffin
then you’re sure to be a-changin’ your ways”
I met a cheerleader, was a real young bleeder
oh, the times I could reminisce
‘cause the best things of lovin’ with her sister and her cousin
only started with a little kiss
like this!
seesaw swingin’ with the boys in the school
and your feet flyin’ up in the air
singin’ “hey diddle diddle”
with your kitty in the middle of the swing
like you didn’t care
so I took a big chance at the high school dance
with a missy who was ready to play
wasn’t me she was foolin’
‘cause she knew what she was doin’
and I knowed love was here to stay
when she told me to
walk this way, walk this way
walk this way, walk this way
walk this way, walk this way
walk this way, walk this way
just gimme a kiss
like this!
schoolgirl sweetie with a classy kinda sassy
little skirt’s climbin’ way up the knee
there was three young ladies in the school gym locker
when I noticed they was lookin’ at me
I was a high school loser, never made it with a lady
till the boys told me somethin’ I missed
then my next door neighbor with a daughter had a favor
so I gave her just a little kiss
like this!
seesaw swingin’ with the boys in the school
and your feet flyin’ up in the air
singin’ “hey diddle diddle”
with your kitty in the middle of the swing
like you didn’t care
so I took a big chance at the high school dance
with a missy who was ready to play
wasn’t me she was foolin’
‘cause she knew what she was doin’
when she told me how to walk this way, she told me to
walk this way, talk this way
walk this way, walk this way
walk this way, walk this way
walk this way, talk this way
just gimme a kiss
like this!
Gaydar ping.
Tells ME they have a lot of gay undergrads at that school............
Apparently tax dollars are funding this research as it comes from UCLA.
“Tubular” females are more likely lesbians? I know of a few thin lesbians, but there are many more chubby ones. Do they mean fat but tubular?
Don’t answer that.
Given that the choice of straight/gay in a controlled test is a 50/50 proposition, this wouldn't seem to be a very high percentage. A little better than flipping a coin, but not much.
I have heard that lesbian females tend to be heavy set, and that Rosie O’Donnell fits that type. It’s just common in the lesbian community to be physically built that way. No offense to Rosie about her appearance.
Just turn your Gaydar on.
What did this study cost?
Gee, and I thought the liberals didn’t want us to indulge in stereotypes...
WELL DUH!
I live next door to a Lesbian couple. One is skinny as a bean pole and the other is of normal proportions..........
“Tubular” females are more likely lesbians? I know of a few thin lesbians, but there are many more chubby ones. Do they mean fat but tubular?
So does that mean Rosie is the exception rather that the rule?
Something along the line of a statistical anomaly?
ping
Like why I was not invited to observe the skinny straight chicks walking on the treadmill...
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