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It seems that just four innocuous questions could offer clues about your sexual orientation. This is based on research out of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Kansas State University that “developed a method that could more or less predict the participants’ sexual orientation” as part of a study exploring how this affects jealousy in relationships. Having recruited nearly 4,500 participants aged 16 to 80—partly through Facebook and partly through websites and forums for queer people as to ensure sexual minorities were well represented—the team asked participants a series of questions. In the sample including gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual and pansexual individuals, "we examined how four indicators of feminization–masculinization were associated with sexual orientation and, subsequently, to jealousy responses to infidelity," the study authors wrote in the paper. Questions to infer sexual orientation covered personality, childhood interests, career preferences and how the participants experience their own gender role. "These are robust measures from the literature that suggest clear sex differentiation. Note, they are not sexual in nature, and this is important to the theoretical model: they are not sex/orientation/sexuality measures they are broad feminization-masculinization indicators. One of these are from early life (play), and the vocation questions differentiate especially well in the Scandinavian context," Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair explained to Newsweek. The answers could be used to predict the participants’ sexual preference with “high certainty,” ranked by how strongly they were attracted to men or to women, rather than “categorical sexual orientation.” "We have continuous measures of orientation (gynephilic [sexual attraction to women and/or femininity]-androphilic[sexual attraction to men and/or masculinity]) and the measures indicate dimensional degree of feminization–masculinization. So increased masculinization for women predicted more gynephilia and vice versa for men," added Kennair. The questions to help reveal sexuality were related to the following four areas: Are you very compassionate or not? (How empathetic or systemizing are you?) As a child, did you often play games typically associated with the opposite gender? (So-called “nonconforming” play) What kind of profession could you imagine working in? (Regardless of your current job) How masculine or feminine do you feel, and how masculine or feminine do you think others perceive you? “Each participant identified their sex (man or woman) based on the sex they were ‘assigned at birth’ (optional with comments). A separate question on subjective sexual identity was posed thereafter, allowing for non-binary responses and an open field for comments,” the study authors wrote. The researchers acknowledged that while the four questions offer a useful indication, there are no clear-cut boundaries with sexual orientation, with masculinity or femininity more fluid. “Biological sex is fixed and strongly linked to the production of sex cells. However, with regards to sexual orientation and how we perceive our own gender and sexuality, there are no clear-cut boundaries,” Kennair said in a statement. “The degree of masculinity and femininity varies greatly from one person to the next and over time, regardless of biological sex,” he added. Kansas State University psychologist professor David Schmitt said in a statement that masculinity and femininity are not opposites on a linear scale, but can coexist side by side within an individual to varying degrees over time. How this variation is related to sexual jealousy was one of the main focuses of the study. While it has historically been believed that men are more often most jealous of sexual infidelity, while women are more jealous of emotional infidelity, the new study shows sexual orientation can also affect jealousy with different layers. “Strong gynephilic attraction and low levels of androphilic orientation, when combined with male sex, powerfully shift the general relational and emotional focus of male individuals toward sexual forms of jealousy. For anyone with lower gynephilic orientation, any perceptible levels of androphilic orientation, or female sex, the general response to infidelity focuses on emotional and relational aspects rather than the sexual aspect,” the study authors wrote in the paper. “However, these shifts are not completely dichotomous or binary. A certain level of sexual jealousy, on average, remains stable across all other profiles of sexual orientation and sex, which also needs to be addressed in the future. “Four different indicators (psychological dials) of feminization–masculinization were linked to both continuous conceptions of sexual orientation and jealousy responses for men, with more femininity appearing alongside non-heterosexuality and emotional expression of jealousy. In strong contrast, psychological feminization was only linked to sexual orientation among women. Being more masculine may not lead to more sexual jealousy when that masculinity exists within a woman.” The team added that various individual differences in aspects of psychological development and function related to sex have an impact on established sex differences. "Sex is influential, but the point of this paper is how the developmental processes involving degrees of feminization–masculinization is what causes the individuals’ expression of psychological differentiation, beyond sex," Kennair concluded. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the research? Let us know via science@newsweek.com. Reference
