Many people have heard the interesting piece of lore that says a person’s eyes dilate when they see someone they’re attracted to. In fact, makeup artists have used this fact as part of a trick, which involves using makeup to make a woman’s pupils look as if they’re more dilated. The effect is to make the woman look as if she’s attracted to the men she sees, which is flattering and gets the mens’ attention.
But recently, this phenomenon has been rigorously studied to see if it can help track a man or woman’s sexual orientation. The truth is, it can.
The way people’s pupils react when they see other people is an effective tool for assessing sexual orientation. — Click to Tweet.
Implications for Common Rumors
It’s not uncommon to hear men and women say that women are a bit more likely to have some attraction to other women, even if they identify as heterosexual. It turns out, recent
tests using the above hypothesis support this idea.
In a recent study, it was found that homosexual women’s pupils responded most to women, and heterosexual women responded to both men and women, though they were more likely to choose to watch men.
The Truest Answer
The reason this technique works so well is that, in the words of Gerulf Reiger, a researcher at Cornell University, “The pupil reacts very quickly, and it is unconscious, so it’s a method that gives us a subconscious indicator of sexuality.”
Gerulf goes on to say that in the past, researchers have had to rely on people’s own reports when assessing sexual orientation, which is less than ideal. Cultural and societal pressures are very likely to influence what a person says.
To find out more about the study, you can check out the journal PLoS ONE.
Confirmation of Bisexuality
Another interesting consequence of this study is that male bisexuality has been confirmed.
The overall results showed that men who reported themselves as bisexual were equally likely to show signs of pupil arousal when looking at male or female subjects.
Some researchers have doubted the existence of bisexual males, saying that “bisexuality” was a stepping stone toward admitting homosexuality. But these studies indicate differently, and they support the sincerity of men who claim they’re bisexual.
Conclusion
This technique for assessing sexual preference could do much more than confirm social observations. It could, for example, be used as evidence in trials for alleged rapists, and that’s just one of many other legal and political uses.
How do these findings affect you, personally? — Especially the new understanding of male bisexuality.
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