Is He Gay? Ovulating Women Can Tell

TIME Healthland:

Ovulation is a really useful biological function. Not only does it facilitate pregnancy — though sperm are in no short supply, the ephemeral egg appears just once a month — but new research finds that it also helps a woman select potential partners by enhancing her “gaydar.”

All this complex sexual decision-making is going on behind the scenes, according to a study published online this week in the journal Psychological Science that found that straight women at their peak period of fertility are far more accurate than non-ovulaters at sussing out who’s gay and who’s not just by looking at a man’s face.

“We consistently find that people have no idea they are able to do this,” says Nicholas Rule, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and the study’s lead author. “They come out of the experiment completely frustrated and say, This is so hard, no one can do this, and then we look at the data and they’re doing amazingly well.”

Read the whole story: TIME Healthland