A Tufts University study last year found that people appear to have the ability to recognize a gay man simply by looking at his face. As part of the research, random sets of people, men and women, were shown photos of straight and gay men in random order. The study group was able to identify the sexual orientation of the men in the photographs at a rate “above chance.”

Additional studies showed that people were able to guess orientation even based on photos showing only the subjects’ eyes and mouths.

Details of the study and its methodology were reported in Scientific American last month by research psychologist Jesse Bering. (For details, read Bering’s article.)

Two things are unclear. First, what do the findings mean? About this Bering says:

Frankly, these findings are a little puzzling to me. Rule and his co-authors mention a few lackluster evolutionary reasons why it would be biologically adaptive for women to know which men aren’t worth the trouble and for men to know who’s not really a sexual competitor. But they also acknowledge that it’s impossible to know from these findings what exactly it is about these facial features that give gays away. “Future studies,” the authors wrote, “may wish to examine what aspects of these features lead to accurate judgments, what their origins might be, and how we acquire the ability to detect them.”

The second ambiguity is more basic. What was the underlying purpose of undertaking the study? Let’s assume it’s part of ongoing research to determine how sexual orientation develops and where its origins lie in the human psyche.

People with a paranoid bent might fear that if the research were perfected that it might be incorporated into facial recognition technology to be used in some dark, dsytopian era to ferret out closeted gays. At the lighter end of the speculative spectrum, maybe it’s useful as cocktail chatter, “Guess what? Scientists have proved that gaydar is real. Discuss.”