Research study reveals that others guys may be able to tell what you are into just by seeing your face in a profile pic.
Well, that is if you believe in peer reviewed research journals.
In a paper published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior entitled: Accurate Identification of a Preference for Insertive Versus Receptive Intercourse from Static Facial Cues of Gay Men, the authors make the case that stereotypes exist for a reason
The researchers also infer that within gaydom, masculine and feminine perceptions live strong.
In short, this means that gay men often tie the “look” of someone to what they prefer in the bedroom.
In a two part study involving people with a medium age of 35, participants were able to correctly identify if a man was a top or bottom that regressed against the mean (stats talk) in a way that’s considered “better than chance”.
How the study was conducted
Hypothesis blind research assistants downloaded 200 photographs of men who identified as gay from online dating profiles from across the United States.One hundred of the pics were guys who self-identified as “tops” and the other 100 as “bottoms”.
As a group, the 50 participants correctly identified the sexual role of the individuals at a rate of 64%.5%, which ended up being the study’s mean. This was an important fact that some websites left out of the original reporting.
And there are some interesting take-aways from the study. One except reads:
Consistent with our hypothesis that sexual roles may be related to generalized concepts of gender, it is possible that perceptions of the sexual roles of gay men could occur via processes similar to those underlying perceptions of sexual orientation.”
Masculine features a determining role
One of the determining factors in how research participants were able to correctly identify if someone was a bottom or top connected to their perceptions of masculinity.“The analysis revealed that participants relied on facial masculinity to accurately infer men’s sexual roles,” reads the section under the study’s results area.
What wasn’t mentioned in this paper was a working definition of masculine or how the participants perceived masculinity, which we are the first to say may be ripe with bias.
The study does seem to confirm a long standing issue within the gay community on the role of stereotypes. Specifically, it appears some people in gaydom borrow from heterosexual ideals of what constitutes masculine; which supports the larger issue of heteronormativity.
In the discussion area of the paper, the following appears:
“These findings are interesting because they suggest that people may tend to generalize their stereotypical perceptions of heterosexual gender roles too other forms of sexual relationships.”
Flaws with the study
The certainly are potential flaws with the study; something that the researchers speak to directly in the “limitations” area of their work.Some of these include:
- Personal online dating profiles often contain stereotypical bias
- The study doesn’t confirm if someone is a total bottom or top.
- Other research contradicts “top or bottom” exclusivity.
Parts one and two also contained a fairly high number of females, with 7 in the first group and 11 in the second.
It is our belief that making the case for top or bottom roles based on pictoral perceptions within the gay community should only have included gay men.
The final part of the study offers the following summary
“Perceptions are somewhat accurate and communicated by a very rich, yet limited, source of statistical information: the human face.”But can we really generalize to the general population based on this kind of study?
www.gaypopbuzz.com/gay-face-pic-reveals-top-bottom/
Study
Abstract
In intercourse between men, one of the partners typically assumes the role of an insertive partner (top) while the other assumes a receptive role (bottom). Although some research suggests that the perceptions of potential partners’ sexual roles in gay men’s relationships can affect whether a man will adopt the role of top or bottom during sexual intercourse, it remains unclear whether sexual roles could be perceived accurately by naïve observers. In Study 1, we found that naïve observers were able to discern men’s sexual roles from photos of their faces with accuracy that was significantly greater than chance guessing. Moreover, in Study 2, we determined that the relationship between men’s perceived and actual sexual roles was mediated by perceived masculinity.Together, these results suggest that people rely on perceptions of characteristics relevant to stereotypical male–female gender roles and heterosexual relationships to accurately infer sexual roles in same-sex relationships. Thus, same-sex relationships and sexual behavior may be perceptually framed, understood, and possibly structured in ways similar to stereotypes about opposite-sex relationships, suggesting that people may rely on these inferences to form accurate perceptions.
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-013-0092-2?no-access=true
