A new study on “gaydar” yields surprising results

Many gay folk pride themselves on being able to judge whether someone else is gay. However, a study has poured cold water on this idea, saying both straight and gay participants were pretty similar when it came to guessing the sexuality of others when it comes to their voice.

The study appeared in the Journal of Homosexuality. The author was Fabio Fasoli from the University of Surrey in England.

He took around 130 participants and played audio recordings of other people. He then asked them to say whether they thought the speakers were gay or heterosexual.

In a second study, rather than a binary “gay/straight” choice, he asked participants to rate speakers on a Kinsey-like scale.

The study explored audio clues to sexuality, not how people dress or present themselves visually.

Fasoli noted that some gay people may talk in a more uninhibited, natural way with their gay friends. They may then adapt their manner of speech around gay people. Has this led to us being able to better pick up on queer cues via speech?

It seems not.

The study found both straight and gay participants were more likely to categorize speakers as straight. In fact, they labeled so many of the speakers as straight that they both tended to miss the gay speakers.

Secondly, both groups were slightly better at identifying gay women than gay men.

Gay participants were slightly more likely to identify speakers as gay, but not necessarily accurately. The researchers suggest that gay people might be less inhibited in labeling other people as gay, whereas straight people might be more cautious of doing so, given the stigma that is often still attached to being queer.

However, “Our findings support overall auditory gaydar inaccuracy, even when LGB participants were involved,” said Fasoli.

“Second, we did not find any support for the idea that gaydar is an ‘innate’ or ‘adaptive’ skill that only LGB individuals have. Instead, we found that LGB participants were less ‘rigid’ in their sexual orientation categorization and more likely to categorize speakers as gay as shown by their weaker straight categorization bias.”

Discrimination against people who sound gay

Fasoli says the research is important because those judged to have a “gay voice” often face discrimination.

A recent study in Sydney found that both gay and straight people were more likely to judge a straight-sounding man as more competent and professional. The study looked at men in higher-status job roles. It found participants judged traditionally masculine men as more suitable candidates for high-profile positions.

Fasoli concluded, “Overall, both LGB and heterosexual individuals appear to be quite inaccurate in their gaydar judgments,” when based just on voices.