The influence of target and perceiver race in the categorisation of male sexual orientation

Although sexual orientation can be judged from faces, in previous work Caucasian or racially unspecified targets and perceivers have been primarily studied. Here, target and perceiver race were considered in the accurate categorisation of male sexual orientation. Asian, Black, and Caucasian participants categorised the sexual orientations of Asian, Black, and Caucasian men. Accuracy was significantly above chance and consistent across all combinations of perceivers and targets. Response bias scores showed that targets were significantly more likely to be categorised as straight, rather than gay, regardless of target or perceiver race. Moreover, judgments of individual targets were significantly correlated for perceivers from all three groups, suggesting cross-race consistency in target legibility. The perception of sexual orientation from faces therefore appears to be robust against variations in target and perceiver race.