The “Gaydar” project at MIT is uncovering how LGBTs online might be revealing their sexuality without saying a word.
Using data from Facebook, two students discovered they could predict whether or not someone is gay just by looking at that person’s friends list. Their software made a prediction based on the subject’s gender and the sexuality of the subject’s friends, and it proved to be quite accurate when the subject is a man. However, the technique was not as accurate with bisexuals and lesbians.
The students are currently shopping around to get their findings published in a journal.
