Complaint Review: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

"Homosexuals are 1.7% of the population. This study used a 50% homosexual population therefore throwing the outcome to make it look like there is some relationship between walking and homosexuality."

They didnt throw the outcome, nor did they try to make it look like there was a relationship. Once again, what the authors were trying to demonstrate (somewhat successfully as it turns out) is that we make JUDGMENTS based on PERCEPTION.

"This study has only helped us misunderstand and alienate one another."

No, in fact it does just the opposite. If you go back and re-read the articles I posted above, youll see that they all encourage us to not judge a book by its cover, and to practice tolerance.

"...buy into the myth that you can see what people are up to by studying their features."

No I dont. I try very hard not to judge a book by its cover :-)  But the fact remains that we are human, and we do make snap judgments based on how we perceive others.
 
"Before this study came out no one used my walk to pigeon hold me to the homosexual stereotype"

How do you know?  I suspect they did and just didnt bring it to your attention. As I said in my previous post, perhaps you walk like the stereotypical butch.  I had a student like that once. A nice girl, smart as a whip, but walked like an orangutan. She was as butch as they come (using the stereotype to make that judgment). And did I mention she was a l*****n?  No, she never told me that, but I make the assumption because she started making a pass at me and as soon as I mentioned my boyfriend her demeanor changed noticeably. Maybe she was just feeling me out so to speak to determine MY orientation. I have a pretty assertive demeanor and perhaps theres something about the way I walk. I dont really know.

I also have a very good friend a man who is gay. Youd never be able to tell by looking at him, and it was years before I figured it out.  You know what clued me in? Not his walk, thats for sure.  Hes middle age, never married, and, most importantly, whenever we were out I noticed he paid more attention to the men walking by than the women.  Based on THOSE perceptions I made a judgment that turned out to be true.
 
"Why would you spend so much time trying to negate my reality?"
 
Im not trying to negate your reality, only your placement of blame.  The study is not responsible for what others do/say.  Thats on them. And if this is a painful subject for you, why do you post about it on a public forum?

You really don't seem to get it. Homosexuals are 1.7% of the population. This study used a 50% homosexual population therefore throwing the outcome to make it look like there is some relationship between walking and homosexuality. Anyone who can do math as in Statistics 101 can figure that out.

The subconscious mind does not compute negatives. If you say you can not tell this or that about women the subconscious mind understands you can tell this or that about women. This study has only helped us misunderstand and alienate one another. No part of a person's truth can be told by looking at them. You can not look at someone and tell there romantic type. I had a guy look at me once and say, "She looks like the type to f$%k 17 year olds." In other words calling me a cougar. My ex-boyfriend made 48 this year. I actually prefer older men, and very strong men but because people think they can look at one another and see some kind of stamp I am thrown in all the wrong categories. ASSUMING make as a*s out or you and me. REMEMBER! There is no stamp and nothing has ever suggested some stamp of visibility other than this rigged study. If that were the case people wouldn't need to wear wedding rings. We could just look at people and tell who is stamped with marriage and who is stamped with singleness. We could catch rapists with out needing a jury because we could just see who is stamped with the rapist lifestyle. If we could see people lifestyle cops could catch every drug dealer in town just by looking at how they walked. We wouldn't need video survalence in retail stores if we carried some sort of visible lifestyle stamp and all of the adults who prefer to have romantic relationships with children would be put away by now. You are obviously not an evidence based thinker. I have evidence that this study has had me pegged homosexual due to my walk. You ignore the real evidence but buy into the myth that you can see what people are up to by studying their features. If this were true there would be no need for criminal investigations. Cashiers & bartenders would never need to ask for ID because they could just tell who is of age and who is not by looking at their stamp. The stamp theory is a myth. Unless you can study the lines on a person's sclera or read palms you can not see amy stamp of sexual preference. No one has ever studied me and said, "She looks like she prefers strong Alpha male types usually older." No one has ever said this although my history reveals such...not some kind of stamp.

This homowalk study admits that even with a 50% homosexual population only 60% of homosexuals men were picked out as such. That's just beyond 1/2 the time and furthermore in the context of a rigged outcome to pick out more homosexuals by over representing the homosexual population to begin with.

People have verbally assaulted me for being homosexual SINCE THIS STUDY CAME OUT BASED ON MY WALK. People actually yell out, "She's a d**e you can tell by the way she walks.", "She's a d**e. I can tell by the way she walks, " EXACT WORDS!!! EVIDENCE that this study has increased violence in my life and further alienated people from one another, Before this study came out no one used my walk to pigeon hold me to the homosexual stereotype. That would mean this study has increased homosexual biased violence in my life because of the way I walk. I hadn't even realized this study existed until I looked it up after hearing people talking about it while trying to figure out my sexual orientation by "watching the hip." I wondered where this new association b/w my walk and homosexuality had come from until someone mentioned it. I went home and found the study responsible for alienating me further from the heterosexual experience.

Anyone who can do math can figure that out. Why would you spend so much time trying to negate my reality? You are only making this more painful. Will you please leave my story alone. You have no idea what you are talking about. Just leave me alone already. This is extremely painful and all you are doing is twisting the knife in my back.

Let me start by saying that I dont condone hate crimes or any other kind of violence, particularly when sparked by illogical assumptions about others.  I am also truly sorry that youve been victimized for what others perceive to be your socially deviant behavior (as you state).

That being said, I stand by my original post in which I contradicted your claim that this study is responsible for anything you might have experienced.  I wasnt able to find much in the popular press about it which suggests that it is NOT a well-known or popularized study.  I did find the following websites, and Ive included a few quotes from those sites which actually support my position or refute yours:

(1) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20762841/ns/health-mental_health/t/gay-or-straight-watch-his-walk

Understanding how people differ, and accepting those [genetic] differences, can only help tolerance.

(2) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070911102649.htm

Given that we all appear to be able to deduce this information to some degree with just a glance, more comprehensive policies may be required to protect gays against discrimination based on their sexual orientation."

(3) http://jezebel.com/298962/gay-people-look-different-walk-different-than-straight-people

It could be said that such a study is potentially dangerous, as it sort of reinforces judging a book by its cover, which is something we've always been told we're not supposed to do. However, the life you live is inscribed upon your body and they way you present yourself, so it only makes sense that we give aspects of ourselves away before we even say a word.

(4) http://www.beyondhomophobia.com/blog/2007/09/15/swagger-sway

But the study didnt show that gender-specific body movements are reliably associated with a persons sexual orientation. As noted above, the researchers videotaped only 4 gay men, 4 lesbians, 4 heterosexual men, and 4 heterosexual women. You simply cant generalize about an entire population from a handful of people.

"The story around the study which appears on several web sites directly tells the public that it is possible to see when someone is a homosexual."

No, what it says it that we make judgments about others based on the way they walk. There are other studies that show we also make judgments about people based on facial features, hair color, clothing styles, etc.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that how we perceive another person (in this case based on their walk) affects the judgment we make about them. The conclusions suggest that we are fairly accurate in predicting homosexual orientation based on gait. However, as my fourth quote above indicates, the small sample size of targets (those the participants watched) says we cant make an assumption about how all gays walk.  Thats a very valid observation.

"The first person to defend this rigged bulls$%t study would be a deviant themselves. That's always how it goes."

Me? A deviant? Gotta laugh at that one because Im about as stereotypical as they get.  Im a Polish Catholic, middle aged, slightly chubby grandma, a staunch Republican, divorced, and heterosexual. And its rare that I find anything on ROR that I can respond to with any expertise. I teach for a university psychology, research and statistics, and critical thinking.

You're blaming this study when all it does is serve to educate others about how we make judgments based on perceptions.  It didn't cause other people to treat you badly. That's their fault.

I have had a tooth knocked out, my nose broken, I have been punched twice closed fist to the face breaking my newest pair of glasses all in homosexual biased hate attacks. I have been sexually assaulted by women at work & on crowded public transportation because they just knew I wanted it based on how I look. First come the assumptions, then come the words, then comes the beating. Ruining a person's reputation by treating them like a sexual deviant based on physical features extremely hurtful. FYI Words can kill! See story on 11 year old Carl Joseph Hoover Walker/ Walker Hoover who committed suicide by hanging for being a straight person constantly stalked by homosexual biased hate at school. Must have been his walk. EMOTIONAL & VERBAL ABUSE such as that used in your intentionally insulting and hurtful rebuttal cause more damage to the human being than physical abuse. Everyone who has an education beyond what mommy taught knows that.

This dangerous study which is directly responsible for me as well as being diagnosed homosexual due to the way I walk first in Park Slope, then at a Food Coop, then on the street, obviously proves nothing. The story around the study which appears on several web sites directly tells the public that it is possible to see when someone is a homosexual. Didn't your mother teach you that you can't judge a book by it's cover? The first person to defend this rigged bulls$%t study would be a deviant themselves. That's always how it goes. Didn't your mother teach you that if you have nothing nice to say to say nothing at all?

I think you have grossly misinterpreted the study.  Your post (as poorly written as it was) struck me as odd, so I went and read the study.  No where do the authors give permission for people to judge others, nor are they "directly responsible" for anything. 

The study examined how people make determinations that another person is homosexual, using gait as one possible variable.  Their findings are pretty sound. It has to do with swagger, waist-to-hip ratio, height, weight, and other body measures.

Interestingly, participants in the study found it easier to surmise sexual orientation for men than women.  This suggests to me that how YOU walk must be a fairly pronounced stereotype of what is commonly called in the gay community as "butch".

Didn't your mother ever teach you that "sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you"?  Why not just ignore ignorant comments?

Your posts also smack of "me thinks he doth protest too much".

Next time, try writing a post that reads more like the adult you are, rather than a high schooler tweeting during study hall.