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Straight or Gay? Vowels in Speech May Give it Away
U.S. News and World Report Health ^ | May 20, 2011 | HealthDay

Posted on 05/21/2011 8:01:50 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

FRIDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- For the average listener, the vowel sounds in an unfamiliar voice quickly give away the speaker's sexual orientation, a new study finds.

"I'm not sure what exactly the listeners are responding to in the vowel," study lead author Erik C. Tracy, a cognitive psychologist at Ohio State University, said in a news release from the American Institute of Physics. "Other researchers have done various acoustic analyses to understand why gay and heterosexual men produce vowels differently. Whatever this difference is, it seems that listeners are using it to make this sexual orientation decision."

When hearing an unfamiliar voice at the other end of the phone line, most people instantly judge the stranger's characteristics based on how they speak, and the new study suggests listeners are usually pretty accurate in their determination.

"This is a phenomenon that occurs every day," Tracy said. "We are constantly speaking with people we don't know on our phones, and just from this conversation, we might be able to identify personal characteristics about that person, such as their gender, age, race or sexual orientation."

In order to understand how this process works, Tracy and a colleague focused on one characteristic -- sexual orientation. They asked seven gay and seven heterosexual males to record single-syllable words (including "mass," "food" and "sell") and then played the recordings for listeners. The study participants were then asked to identify the sexual orientation of the speakers when hearing only the first letter sound of those words, the first two letter sounds, or the entire words.

The listeners were unable to determine the sexual orientation after hearing the sound of the first letter in the spoken word, for example, just the "m" sound in the word "mass." But, "when presented with the first two letter sounds [for example "ma"], listeners were 75 percent accurate," Tracy said. "We believe that listeners are using the acoustic information contained in vowels to make this sexual orientation decision," he explained.

The findings are scheduled to be presented May 23 in Seattle at the meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Experts note that research presented at meetings has not been subjected to the same type of rigorous scrutiny given to research published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about sexual orientation.

Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: anotherstudy; gaybonics; gaydar; gaygene; gays; homosexualagenda; junkscience; lavendermafia; napl; pseudoscience; straights; taxdollarsatwork; voicepatterns
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
How many “straight” females wear flannel shirts, and have mannish haircuts? Another stereotype. Which brings me to this question: why are TV-show lesbians so pretty?
Who would tune in if they all looked like Rosey O'Donnell or Chaz Bono?
61 posted on 05/22/2011 5:00:59 AM PDT by jmcenanly ( "We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him." -Samuel)
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To: Navy Patriot
E nunciate! Bye the bye, is April Lexington referencing the first battle of the Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775?

BINGO!

62 posted on 05/22/2011 5:50:32 AM PDT by April Lexington (Study the Constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The word “that”, stretched out ‘til it’s almost two syllables, that sounds gay to me.


63 posted on 05/22/2011 6:17:22 AM PDT by flowerplough (Obama: "Get back inside '67 borders." / Helen Thomas:"Go back to Poland and Germany!")
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To: Slings and Arrows

Isn’t old linseed married? With children?


64 posted on 05/22/2011 7:45:52 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: Windflier
So, what's the reason they speak with a lisp? That's always been a mystery to me.

And why does it happen only AFTER they "come out?"

I think they have a super-secret finishing school they go to, where they learn "the talk" and "the walk" and the rest of the affectations of flamerdom.

65 posted on 05/22/2011 8:02:55 AM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Windflier
It’s not exactly a lisp. It’s a distinct accent or something. I can’t describe it, but I know it when I hear it.
Perhaps it’s Austrian?
66 posted on 05/22/2011 8:13:09 AM PDT by cartan
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To: going hot
The question never coalesced in my brain.

Really. Not once in your whole life did you ever wonder why homos talk so weird?

Now that's pure.

67 posted on 05/22/2011 8:13:23 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: PapaBear3625
This is an advantage to gays trying to make their orientation evident to other gays, so perhaps it's something in gay culture that's picked up.

I guess its an affectation they pick up from other gays. I doubt they grow up talking that way.

68 posted on 05/22/2011 8:23:11 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Windflier
Nah, just assumed that they talk with a lisp, never wondered why.

I never wondered why snakes bite, either.

69 posted on 05/22/2011 8:26:28 AM PDT by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: Charles Henrickson

*groan*


70 posted on 05/22/2011 8:28:03 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 850 of our national holiday from reality. - OBL Dead? The TSA can go away!)
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To: Disambiguator
And why does it happen only AFTER they "come out?"

I suppose they don't know many other gays until after they're emancipated as young adults, then flock to their own, and begin picking up the 'culture'.

71 posted on 05/22/2011 8:28:03 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Right Wing Puppy
Anybody check out Obamas vowel sounds?

I plan on staying as far away from Obama's bowels as possible, thankyouverymuch...

72 posted on 05/22/2011 8:36:14 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 850 of our national holiday from reality. - OBL Dead? The TSA can go away!)
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To: Slings and Arrows; dixiechick2000
dixiechick2000 ~ Keep up the good work...

Slings and Arrows ~ Will do, ma’am.

On this thread, you could have given the exact same answer if she'd said "Keep it up"...

*nully, ducking and running for cover*

73 posted on 05/22/2011 8:49:52 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 850 of our national holiday from reality. - OBL Dead? The TSA can go away!)
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To: TheOldLady

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham#Personal_life

Lindsey, you’re *not* helping.


74 posted on 05/22/2011 9:41:24 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

There’s the test for homosexuality. Just ask if the man is upset about the fact that linseed “ain’t gay.”

After all, he’s so attractive.


75 posted on 05/22/2011 9:44:33 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: TheOldLady

No, he is single and has said he is not gay, but I doubt many believe the not gay part. ;)

Graham has never been married and when asked by Robert Draper of the New York Times said “I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men—I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge—but I ain’t available I ain’t gay. Sorry.”
^ Draper, Robert (June 28, 2010). “Lindsey Graham, This Year’s Maverick”. The New York Times Magazine. pp. MM22.


76 posted on 05/22/2011 9:57:03 AM PDT by kalee (The offences we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we engrave in marble. J Huett 1658)
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To: kalee; Slings and Arrows
You're right. I did exclude my </sarc> tag, but in posts from me, Slings and Arrows doesn't need it, LOL!
77 posted on 05/22/2011 10:00:34 AM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: kalee; TheOldLady

Oscar Wilde had a wife and two kids. Grahamnesty is a lifelong bachelor. G-d, I love irony.


78 posted on 05/22/2011 10:03:25 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: TheOldLady

If he was straight, his Southern Mama would have been nagging for grandbabies and gotten them or only given up nagging for them when finally she realized he was destined to be “the eccentric uncle”, (the one who never married, but adored his nieces and nephews and would look after her in her old age, wink, wink).


79 posted on 05/22/2011 10:09:04 AM PDT by kalee (The offences we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we engrave in marble. J Huett 1658)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

80 posted on 05/22/2011 12:56:26 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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