Sexual orientation biases attentional control: A possible gaydar mechanism

Abstract

Homosexuals are believed to have a "sixth sense" for recognizing each other, an ability referred to as gaydar. We considered that being a homosexual might rely on systematic practice of processing relatively specifi c, local perceptual features, which might lead to a corresponding chronic bias of attentional control. This was tested by comparing male and female homosexuals and heterosexuals - brought up in the same country and culture and matched in terms of race, intelligence, sex, mood, age, personality, religious background, educational style, and socioeconomic situation - in their effi ciency to process global and local features of hierarchicallyconstructed visual stimuli. Both homosexuals and heterosexuals showed better performance on global features - the standard global precedence effect. However, this effect was signifi cantly reduced in homosexuals, suggesting a relative preference for detail. Findings are taken to demonstrate chronic, generalized biases in attentional control parameters that refl ect the selective reward provided by the respective sexual orientation. © 2010 Colzato, van Hooidonk, van den Wildenberg, Harinck and Hommel.