CSUF professor makes gay-straight physical comparisons Some traits may be more common in gay men than straight men
By:
Sean Belk
About 10 years ago, Cal State Fullerton psychology professor Richard Lippa walked up and down Brea Mall, perusing areas known to have gay populations.
Whether at a beach or a festival, Lippa and a few students searched for certain physical characteristics in both gay and straight men, such as whether their hair swirled to the right or to the left.
Every time they noticed a man's hair whorl swirling in a counterclockwise fashion, they quietly pressed their left-hand clicker. For a clockwise whorl, they pressed the right-hand clicker.
Click. Click. Click.
By the end of his study, Lippa had assessed the hair whorls of over 1,000 men, and he found that about 21.3 percent of men at gay pride festivals had counterclockwise whorls, whereas a little under 10 percent of men in general had clockwise whorls.
Lippa is quick to emphasize that most gay men (about 80 percent), like most straight men (about 90 percent), have the majority pattern: a clockwise hair whorl.
But what interests him is, when compared to straight men, gay men had a higher frequency of counterclockwise whorls.
While some might find this confusing or odd, Lippa speculates his study could add to recent evidence that sexual orientation is a trait someone is born with.
Throughout his years of research, Lippa said he is now able to easily decipher a person's traits and whether one is homosexual, which is commonly termed as "gaydar."
A CSUF teacher since 1976, Lippa appeared on the Tyra Banks Show in October, where he was asked to judge a panel of six men and decide whether each was gay or straight. By the way they walked, talked and interacted with each other, Lippa was, in fact, able to judge each person's sexual orientation accurately.
But observing the 1,000 men for his recent study was more difficult, Lippa said.
Lippa's research comes on the heels of a similar study by biologist Amar Klar, who published an observational study in 2003 suggesting gay men are more likely to have counterclockwise hair whorls than straight men.
In an attempt to replicate Klar's finding, Lippa conducted his own research and found that the rate of counterclockwise hair whorls is, indeed, about twice as large in gay men as in heterosexual men. The study left out women, because, according to Lippa, their hair tends to be longer and thus, harder to observe.
His research not only looks at the patterns of people's hair, but also whether they are left-handed or right-handed.
This study concluded that more gay men (about 13 percent) than heterosexual men (11 percent) were left-handed, and similarly, more lesbian women (13 percent) than straight women (10 percent) were also left-handed.
Although much of his findings show slight differences, Lippa said his research is still on the fringe of discovery, and there are other factors that could make up a person's sexual preference that should be taken into consideration. Other biologists, for instance, say that left-handedness and sexual orientation can be attributed to birth defects in the womb, Lippa said.
"You shouldn't take from this that you can look to see if you're gay or straight," Lippa said.
Along with his other studies, Lippa is currently working with two biologists on DNA research to discover if there could be a "gay gene," one that would provide evidence of whether someone is born gay, or bisexual in some cases.
Jennifer Trevitt, CSUF assistant professor of psychology, said that biological psychology is linking the physiological foundation with how people communicate. She said interlinking the two subjects can help shed light on certain diseases or conditions such as schizophrenia or Parkinson's disease, which she is currently studying.
In Lippa's study, she said the idea is that most traits can be linked to genes and some seem to travel together.
"It seems kind of weird, but it may be the genes that show characteristics are closer together on the same chromosome. There are some things that are common underlying factors," Trevitt said. "It's very intriguing stuff."
Ali Mushtaq, a member of the CSUF Queer Straight Alliance, said he supports such research that dispels the stereotypes common in today's media, such as that gay men are perceived to be more feminine than straight men.
"We seem to attach behaviors with sexuality," Mushtaq said.
But for Mushtaq, who is also conducting his own research on sociological factors, such research can have a double effect on the perception of homosexuals. He said if studies show that homosexuality is an inherent trait, then the public would have a hard time discriminating against people that have no choice over their sex partners. But he also said it could lead to homosexuals being termed as "born deviant," such as people with Attention Deficit Disorder who are commonly given the right to act different.
"I know from personal experience that you do not choose to be gay," Mushtaq said. "But you have to look at heterosexuals and homosexuals at the same time. You draw conclusions from what we get from those, and if that's the case, then we're going to say, 'So you're biologically wired to be deviant?'"
Lippa's wide range of research was recently published in the psychological journal, "Archives of Sexual Behavior," in April 2007, for a special section attributed to studies based from a British Broadcasting Corp. Internet survey.
The survey, taken by about 250,000 people worldwide, asked questions about gender differences, sex drive, behaviors and mate preferences, Lippa said. The survey was part of a 2005 BBC documentary "Secrets of the Sexes," in which he explained that data pertaining to certain feminine and masculine traits are similar across 53 nations.
The data included such findings as an overwhelmingly large proportion of men prefer good-looking women when choosing a mate while women prefer honesty, humor, kindness and dependability more than physical attraction.
Lippa said so far, it appears that men are the more "biologically" determined of the sexes, whereas women with high sex drives tend to desire both genders. As described in his book, "Gender, Nature and Nurture," Lippa said these findings implicate that sexual orientation is primarily diverse in men and women.
"Women are more flexible and fluid than men, and tend to be bisexual," Lippa said. "Men are usually either or."
While he said it might sound weird that a person's hair whorl could be linked to sexual orientation, diet, drink, alcohol and infectious diseases could also affect developmental instabilities, Lippa said.
Another study, where he worked with Canadian psychologist Ray Blanchard, shows that gay men are more likely to have more older brothers, when compared to straight men, because of what is called "the fraternal birth order effect," according Lippa said.
Prenatal hormone levels might contribute to both left-handedness and sexual orientation, from an immunological reaction, Lippa says. As a mother produces more children, the amount of male tissues decreases in the womb, which Lippa said could affect a baby's sexual development.
"This does offer a little bit of circumstantial evidence that maybe one of the factors that lead to sexual orientation is prenatal hormones," Lippa said. "There are thousands of things that could affect development."
