MIT Study Outs Gay Men on Facebook - Democratic Underground

The Straight Story

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:34 PM
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MIT Study Outs Gay Men on Facebook

MIT Study Outs Gay Men on Facebook

Locating unidentified homosexual men on Facebook? There's an app for that. It was created by two students at MIT, who discovered that gay men tend to have more male Facebook friends of their own orientation.

The students, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree, ran the program on 10 men who were gay, but didn't reveal that information on their profiles. The software predicted that all ten were gay, according to the London Telegraph.

In total the researchers ran their software on 947 people who did not disclose their sexual orientation on their profiles, but it failed to accurately identify lesbians or bisexuals of either gender.

The software apparent does not work for bisexual people or lesbians. No word on when it will be available for the iPhone.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353079,00.asp

The bright minds of today are creating such useful things :)

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derby378

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:36 PM
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1. Couldn't that software also identify Freemasons, by the same logic?

I do know some regular Masonic lodges have started admitting women, but I think they're still the exception to the rule.

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Barack_America

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:38 PM
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2. Or you could just ask.

If you really must know someone's sexual orientation, that is.

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Stevenmarc

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:38 PM
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3. Gaydar 1.0

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no limit

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:39 PM
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4. I better lose some male friends

damn.

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Drunken Irishman

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:44 PM
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5. Or you could just create an application that looks at the interested in status of the friends...

Edited on Mon Sep-21-09 02:44 PM by Drunken Irishman

And if a good number of men list they're interested in MEN, then it's probably likely that person is gay themselves.

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joeybee12

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:53 PM
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6. These guys have too much time on their hands...

...and if it can onl identify gay men, but not lesbians, I think it's just a coincidence.

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Drunken Irishman

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Mon Sep-21-09 02:54 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. Of course it is.

Edited on Mon Sep-21-09 02:54 PM by Drunken Irishman

Lots of people have a mixed number of friends on FB.

I have a big group of guy friends I know through college football, which is NOT a sport very well liked by many women.

Does that make me gay?

:o

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

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joeybee12

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Mon Sep-21-09 03:10 PM
Response to Reply #7

9. Yup, and I'm gay but have spent most of this morning in the Sports Forum

talking about football...speciifcally the Cowpies devastating loss! :evilgrin:

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Drunken Irishman

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Mon Sep-21-09 03:42 PM
Response to Reply #9

10. Wanna date?

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GodlessBiker

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Mon Sep-21-09 03:06 PM
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8. Are they looking for dates or something?

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