囧研究：女生是天生的同志探測器

A study found that students asked to tell whether someone was gay or straight guessed correctly more often than could be put down to mere chance. Women had greater accuracy with 65 per cent able to identify someone's sexuality at a glance, while men were correct 57 per cent of the time.
一項研究發現，在要求學生辨認一個人是同性戀還是異性戀的時候，通常會猜中的機率比較大，這可不僅僅是隨機猜測的問題。女人在瞥一眼就能分辨一個人性徵的準確率更是高達65%，而男人的準確率只有57%。

Evidence suggest it is easier to recognise gay women's faces than men's even when photos were shown upside down and with no hairstyle visible.
研究中還有證據表明，哪怕是照片混亂出現而且不顯示髮型，女同性戀者的面龐也比男同性戀者的更容易辨認出來。

Researchers in journal PLoS One say the results suggest we may unconsciously make gay or straight decisions when meeting a new face.
公共科學圖書館日報的研究人員說，這樣的結論表明當我們碰到一張新面孔的時候，可能無意識地做着同性戀或是異性戀的辨別判斷。

Joshua Tabak, of the University of Washington, said: "It may be similar to how we don't have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white. This information confronts us in everyday life."
來自華盛頓大學的約書亞·塔巴克說：“這種情況和我們不用考慮一個人是男人還是女人/黑人還是白人的狀況很相似。我們在日常生活中都會遭遇這些信息。”

For the study, 129 college students viewed 96 photos each of young adult men and women who identified themselves as gay or straight. Faces with facial hair, glasses, makeup and piercings were excluded to limit any potential prejudice associated with these embellishments. Only the faces and not the hairstyle were visible.
在這項研究裏，129名大學生觀察了96張確定爲同性戀或是異性戀的成年男女的照片。面部毛髮、化妝和穿孔等因素被排除在外，來限制人們聯繫這些飾品的出現的潛在偏見。所以，照片上只有面龐也沒有髮型。

For women's faces, participants were 65 percent accurate in telling the difference between gay and straight faces when the photos flashed on a computer screen. When the faces were flipped upside down, participants were 61 percent accurate in telling the two apart.
對於女性面龐來說，當照片在電腦屏幕上閃過時，參與者識別同性戀和異性戀面龐的正確率是65%。當照片面龐被混在一起，參與者辨別準確率爲61%。

Figures were slightly lower with men at 57 percent accuracy. This slipped to 53 percent - still statistically above chance - when the men's faces appeared upside down. There were more 'false alarm' guesses with men's faces than women's - where the students wrongly assumed someone was gay.
男性面龐辨別準確率有些低，只有57%，打亂放置時準確率雖然只有53%，但從統計學上來說仍然高於隨機水平。研究裏，男性面龐也比女性面龐有更多的“虛假”猜想，就是說學生會錯誤地假設一些人是同性戀者。

This may be because people are more familiar with the concept of gay men than lesbians so more liberal in judging men's faces, suggests Dr Tabak, although it may also be that the difference is more noticeable.
塔巴克博士說，這種情況可能是因爲比起女同性戀者來說，人們更加熟悉男同性戀者的概念，所以在評判男性面龐的時候就更加自在。儘管這也可能是由於差異性太明顯而造成的。

Dr Tabak said: "We were surprised that participants were above-chance judging sexual orientation based on upside down photos flashed for just 50 milliseconds, about a third the time of an eyeblink."
塔巴克博士說：“我們很吃驚滴發現，混在一起的照片在比三分之一眨眼速度還快的50毫秒內閃過，參與者從中辨別面龐性取向的準確率都在隨機機率之上。”

Some subjects were unable to guess accuarately and Dr Tabak said there was "always a small number of people with no ability to distinguish gay and straight faces."
有一些受試者無法準確地猜中性徵，塔巴克博士說：“這裏也存在着一些根本沒有能力辨認同性戀和異性戀面龐的一小撮人。”

And he speculates that "people from older generations or different cultures who may not have grown up knowing they were interacting with gay people" may be less accurate in making gay versus straight judgments.
並且他推測：“老一輩的人，或是在不知道會與同性戀人羣接觸的文化背景中成長的人們”，他們可能會在同性戀和異性戀辨別中準確率會比較低。”