In the second study, gay men were presented with the exact same scenario except the Facebook profile depicted Jordan as either a straight woman, a gay woman or a gay man. Researchers asked the women to look up a Facebook profile for Jordan - who was presented as either a straight woman, a straight man or a gay man – and then answer a series of questions. In one, straight women were presented with a scenario involving a party, a friend who bags out at the last minute and a substitute “date” named Jordan. To test his hypothesis, Russell enlisted the help of 88 straight women and 58 gay men, all undergrads from the Texas ChristianUniversity, and conducted two experiments. Russell wondered if it had something to do with the exchange of mating advice since gay men and straight women aren’t romantic partners or mating competition and were “uniquely positioned to exchange trustworthy information.”
