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William Lee Adams, an undergraduate at Harvard, replicated earlier work by his advisor, Nalini Ambady (now at Tufts University). Ambady's original study, published in 1999, showed that homosexuals were better at correctly identifying sexual orientation from silent videos and photographs than heterosexuals were. Adams' research, started in 2004, focused exclusively on the face; the focal point of most social interaction.
This finding was elaborated by Ron Smyth and colleagues in 2003. A 2007 study under Ambady found that people could identify gay men better than random chance when shown only a photo of only the eye. Accuracy was closer to what participants thought their accuracy would be when hairstyle was included. A 2009 study found that determination of female sexual orientation by similar means was more accurate when a "snap" judgment was made, rather than conscious deliberation.
Popular cultural references to having (or lacking) a gaydar skill:
• In the Ellen episode "The Puppy Episode" (originally broadcast April 1997), Ellen DeGeneres' character learns the concept of gaydar as part of her coming-out process. She then explains to her friends: "I must be giving off one of those vibes again. That's what we do...we give off vibrations and then we pick up the vibrations from our gaydar...so I've heard".
• In the Friends episode "The One Where Nana Dies Twice" , Chandler, who according to the other main protagonists has a certain "quality" of being gay, is told by a gay co-worker that "all gays have some kind of radar." Hence the co-worker knew all along that Chandler was not gay.
• In the show Gay, Straight or Taken?, a single female contestant dates three guys: one is gay, one is straight and the third has a girlfriend. Her goal is to identify the straight guy who is single, in order to win a vacation with him. To do so, she must use her "gaydar".
• In the Australian version of Playing It Straight, the dog on the ranch was named "Gaydar".
• Saturday Night Live had a recurring sketch (1999–2002) about a woman without gaydar, played by Rachel Dratch, initially portrayed by Molly Shannon.
• In the 2003 debut episode of Dead Like Me the protagonist describes the ability of detecting other grim reapers as "like gaydar only more creepy".[15]
• The Onion satirized gaydars in "I Can Instantly Tell Whether Someone Is African-American With My Amazing Blackdar".[16]
• In The L Word season one episode "Let's Do It", Dana acknowledges her lacking gaydar after admitting to Alice and Shane that she is unable to read the signals from people around her.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after Kennedy asks her how long she's enjoyed sleeping with women, Willow responds "Hey! And what, you think you have some sort of special lesbidar or something?".
• Absent gaydar occurred on a November 2008 episode of Top Gear, when Jeremy Clarkson used the word with regard to Will Young.
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