Gaydar - Is it Genuine?

I was flipping through the 27 November 2009 issue of "Science" magazine, when a blurb entitled "How's Your Gaydar?" caught my eye. Psychologist Nicholas Rule, of Tufts University, performed an experiment where he showed 21 college students 192 photos of various straight and gay women. These images were taken from dating web sites and then cropped so that only the face itself (no hair or ears)was visible. It turns out that the students were right 64% of the time, guessing better than expected from simple random chance. This result held up even when the students were only shown the women's eyes. Further, in 2008, similar results were obtained with an experiment testing the classification of male faces. Other analysis has shown that homosexuals tend to adopt facial expressions more typical of the opposite sex. As the students in this study were more accurate when forced to make a snap decision, then, Rule believes that people unconsciously pick up on subtle differences in facial muscle tendencies. Human gaydar, then, is based on automatic processing of snippets of information that provide some basis for making a judgement. A 64% accuracy rate, however seems a far cry from a finely tuned gay versus straight sensor. I will admit, however, that this study relied only on visual clues discernible in the photograph of facial features. In person, our full range of senses may utilize additional contextual clues. I am far from convinced, however, that "gaydar" is an innate, reliable human skill. I'm just a Blind Bambi, though, with "no-eyed deer" about much of anything.