Women's "gaydar" better at this time of month: When?

By: David W Freeman
Topics: News ,; Sex and Relationships ,; Research

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(Credit: istockphoto)

(CBS) Talk about women's intuition.

Research has shown that women are pretty good at guessing men's sexual orientation from a quick glance, and a new study shows that gals' "gaydar" gets even better when they're ovulating.

For the study, psychologists at the University of Toronto and Tufts University had 40 female college students look at 80 photos, each showing the face of either a straight or gay man. The men were considered equally attractive and showed the same facial expressions. When the students - all heterosexual and none of whom was taking contraceptive medication - were asked to say which guys were straight and which gay, they did better if their menstrual cycle schedule suggested they were nearing peak ovulation.

Next, the researchers asked 34 women to look at a similar series of female faces, 100 of which featured gay women and 100 of which featured straight women. What happened? The study participants proved to be no better at guessing women's sexual orientation when they were nearing peak ovulation than when they weren't.

What's the take-away message?

Lead author Nicholas Rule, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, said in written statement that the findings suggest that "fertility influences a heterosexual woman's attention to potential mates rather than merely increasing sensitivity to sexual orientation or nonverbal cues more generally."

Or - to put it in simpler terms - when women have the greatest chance of getting pregnant, they're better at finding a fellow who's eager to do the deed.

The study was published in the June 27, 2011 issue of Psychological Science.

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by rwsmith29456 June 28, 2011 5:18 PM EDT: I hope women are better than men about assessing sexuality. All my life people have assumed I'm gay when I'm not. I'm not sure about how women feel, since no woman has ever directly told me that I 'look' gay. Maybe they are better at guessing this. People who take time to get to know me know that I'm not gay. But people nearly always go with their first impression.; Reply to this comment


by markag55 June 28, 2011 4:45 PM EDT: I'm glad that CBS has deemed this newsworthy. Now I want a study done if men (straight, bi, gay, it doesn't matter) can tell by a photo if a woman is premenstrual. Again, you can usually tell in person. (Sorry, women, no harm meant.); Reply to this comment


by mecanik-2009 June 28, 2011 3:11 PM EDT: Gays are not that hard to spot. Most flame like a torch or they do things totally out of character of men in general. 99% can be spotted in just a glance.; Reply to this comment


by expat31 June 28, 2011 2:54 PM EDT: I would find this study more convincing if the researchers had also chosen a control group of 30 males to view the same photos. In other words, is there something about the photos that differentiates gay men from straight men that can be discerned by both males and females quite apart from any effect resulting from ovulation? I wonder if this study was peer reviewed. I'm not familiar with Psychological Science. Did it replace Psychology Today? If it did, it probably wasn't peer reviewed.; Reply to this comment