A study found that students asked to tell whether someone was gay or straight guessed correctly more often than could be put down to mere chance. Women had greater accuracy with 65 per cent able to identify someone's sexuality at a glance, while men were correct 57 per cent of the time.

一项研究发现，在要求学生辨认一个人是同性恋还是异性恋的时候，通常会猜中的几率比较大，这可不仅仅是随机猜测的问题。女人在瞥一眼就能分辨一个人性征的准确率更是高达65%，而男人的准确率只有57%。

Evidence suggest it is easier to recognise gay women's faces than men's even when photos were shown upside down and with no hairstyle visible.

研究中还有证据表明，哪怕是照片混乱出现而且不显示发型，女同性恋者的面庞也比男同性恋者的更容易辨认出来。

Researchers in journal PLoS One say the results suggest we may unconsciously make gay or straight decisions when meeting a new face.

公共科学图书馆日报的研究人员说，这样的结论表明当我们碰到一张新面孔的时候，可能无意识地做着同性恋或是异性恋的辨别判断。

Joshua Tabak, of the University of Washington, said: "It may be similar to how we don't have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white. This information confronts us in everyday life."

来自华盛顿大学的约书亚·塔巴克说：“这种情况和我们不用考虑一个人是男人还是女人/黑人还是白人的状况很相似。我们在日常生活中都会遭遇这些信息。”

For the study, 129 college students viewed 96 photos each of young adult men and women who identified themselves as gay or straight. Faces with facial hair, glasses, makeup and piercings were excluded to limit any potential prejudice associated with these embellishments. Only the faces and not the hairstyle were visible.

在这项研究里，129名大学生观察了96张确定为同性恋或是异性恋的成年男女的照片。面部毛发、化妆和穿孔等因素被排除在外，来限制人们联系这些饰品的出现的潜在偏见。所以，照片上只有面庞也没有发型。

For women's faces, participants were 65 percent accurate in telling the difference between gay and straight faces when the photos flashed on a computer screen. When the faces were flipped upside down, participants were 61 percent accurate in telling the two apart.

对于女性面庞来说，当照片在电脑屏幕上闪过时，参与者识别同性恋和异性恋面庞的正确率是65%。当照片面庞被混在一起，参与者辨别准确率为61%。

Figures were slightly lower with men at 57 percent accuracy. This slipped to 53 percent - still statistically above chance - when the men's faces appeared upside down. There were more 'false alarm' guesses with men's faces than women's - where the students wrongly assumed someone was gay.

男性面庞辨别准确率有些低，只有57%，打乱放置时准确率虽然只有53%，但从统计学上来说仍然高于随机水平。研究里，男性面庞也比女性面庞有更多的“虚假”猜想，就是说学生会错误地假设一些人是同性恋者。

This may be because people are more familiar with the concept of gay men than lesbians so more liberal in judging men's faces, suggests Dr Tabak, although it may also be that the difference is more noticeable.

塔巴克博士说，这种情况可能是因为比起女同性恋者来说，人们更加熟悉男同性恋者的概念，所以在评判男性面庞的时候就更加自在。尽管这也可能是由于差异性太明显而造成的。

Dr Tabak said: "We were surprised that participants were above-chance judging sexual orientation based on upside down photos flashed for just 50 milliseconds, about a third the time of an eyeblink."

塔巴克博士说：“我们很吃惊滴发现，混在一起的照片在比三分之一眨眼速度还快的50毫秒内闪过，参与者从中辨别面庞性取向的准确率都在随机几率之上。”

Some subjects were unable to guess accuarately and Dr Tabak said there was "always a small number of people with no ability to distinguish gay and straight faces."

有一些受试者无法准确地猜中性征，塔巴克博士说：“这里也存在着一些根本没有能力辨认同性恋和异性恋面庞的一小撮人。”

And he speculates that "people from older generations or different cultures who may not have grown up knowing they were interacting with gay people" may be less accurate in making gay versus straight judgments.

并且他推测：“老一辈的人，或是在不知道会与同性恋人群接触的文化背景中成长的人们”，他们可能会在同性恋和异性恋辨别中准确率会比较低。”