Eye pupils show sexual orientation

Heterosexual men also react to men

08/08/2012

The movement of the pupils can reveal the sexual preferences of the person. That's what scientists from the US Cornell University found out. Not only women, but also men often responded to both sexes, even though their orientation was „heterosexual“ einstuften.

Involuntary eye movements reveal sexuality
A research team led by Gerulf Rieger has analyzed the reaction of pupils from 325 men and women. The subjects were exposed to different sexual stimuli during a study, which were visualized. „Men and women showed significant differences“, as the researchers report. As a measure, among other things, the expansion of the pupils was taken. Social researchers have long suspected that involuntary eye reactions reflect sexual orientation. „However, there was never any proof for this assumption“, like the authors in the trade magazine „PloS ONE“ declared.

In the first run, participants were asked about their sexual orientation. Afterwards, erotic films were auditioned for men and women. The researchers measured the pupil reactions using special cameras. These showed the eye movements, the orientation of the gaze and the pupil width.

Many men also responded to opposite orientations
As might be expected, heterosexual men showed greater pupil responses when viewing video clips in attractive women and gay men when seeing attractive men. „However, the pupil reaction did not always agree with the previous statements of the participants“, the scientists report. Occasionally, the eye pupils of heterosexual women and men have also widened, if they each saw their own gender in the film. Although men often say of themselves that, unlike women, they separate strict homosexual and heterosexual preferences, many men surprisingly showed interest in their own gender. „Our result refutes the advantage over male sexuality“, summed up Rieger. „We can clearly prove that there are not only women with flexible sexual desire“, said teammate Ritch Savin-Williams. According to the scientists, the three divisions are sufficient „Gay, bisexual and heterosexuals are not enough to capture gradations.

Gay men also responded to women
But not only heterosexually oriented men showed interest in other orientations. Also, subjects who consider themselves as „gay“ classified, showed larger pupils at the sight of beautiful women. Overall, however, it could be observed that the pupil response correlated essentially with sexual orientation.

„For the first time, it has been possible to provide evidence to a larger number of subjects that the pupil response can provide measurable information about sexual orientation“, the researchers write. For further research the results are very valuable and provide new approaches. Until now, only measurements using sensors on the genitals could be made. (Sb)

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Image: Gisela Peter