“Gaydar” in sync with a woman’s fertility cycle

It seems women have a better sense of the gay and straight man when they are at peak ovulation, the highest fertility point in their cycle. According to a study in Psychological Science, women are much better at judging the sexual orientation of a guy as they approach peak fertility. The research team was lead by University of Toronto psychologist Nicholas Rule. He also discovered that as women feel more romantic, they also have heightened awareness of sexual orientation of the men they are around.

The study is kind of fascinating. They gave photographs to young women who were not taking hormones for any reason and could plot their menstrual cycle. The photos were of 40 self identified hetero- and homo-sexual men. They were non-descript, emotionless photographs with a variety of men. Participants were told to go with their instincts. In the end, accuracy was much higher than guessing.

They did a second experiment using women’s faces and the gay women were also identified at a higher rate than chance guessing. The third experiment involved reading a romantic story and looking at more facial photographs. There appeared to be more accurate guessing with a heighten romantic awareness.

The researchers admit the evolutionary basis for this skill is self-evident. A woman’s ability to pick out a suitable mate, one who won’t waste her precious reproductive time, is heightened at exactly the time she needs it to be to ensure survival of her genes.

Source: Miller-McCune