It could be that both gay people and homophobic straight people responded more quickly to the gay-themed imagery because they were all secretly gay. Whatever the precedents, their homo-say-what task leaves itself open to an easy, alternative interpretation. On a subconscious level, at least, she’s associating the word me with gayness. If seeing the word me shortens a student’s reaction time for the gay-themed imagery, it’s taken as a sign of her implicit homosexuality.
The researchers start by asking college freshmen, mostly women, to rate their sexual orientation on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 means completely straight 5 means bisexual 10 means totally gay) and then to say how much they agree with politically charged statements like, “Gay people make me nervous” and “I would feel uncomfortable having a gay roommate.” Once the students have been characterized according to their relative degrees of gayness and homophobia, they’re shown a series of icons or photos of wedding-cake figurines on a computer monitor-two women, two men, or a man with a woman-and told to label each one as being “gay” or “straight.” In a final twist, some of the “gay” and “straight” images are preceded on the screen by a subliminal verbal cue-a word flashed quickly on the screen that reads either me or others. The new study works like an elaborate game of “ homo say what?”: Evidence of private, homosexual urges is elicited by subtle verbal cues.
