In other news, gay people don't even exist. Seriously, if you are going to attempt this type of "study" gay people are a perfect group, as you can mostly control for gender bias.
Exactly. I was reading this, and had the inbult assumption that all men like women and all women like men.
Way to erase a minority.
It also slightly feeds into the idea that "women have it easy!". I'd be interested if a straight female were to conduct a similar experiement and write it up. What would her perspectives be?
Well, yes, you can control for gender bias, but then you're studying a completely different domain. You're selling short the unique complexities of both heterosexual and homosexual courtship.
It's an interesting question: what determines how many messages a gay guy receives? What type of guys are most likely to send the initial message?
In the first four months I was on OKCupid, I got unsolicited messages from about 115 guys. In the same period, I sent unsolicited messages to about 10 guys, of which 7 elicited responses. My sense is that my numbers are higher than if I were a straight guy, but I have no idea how they compare to "typical" for gay guys.
I'm a straight guy, but I've had a lot of experiences observing how some of my gay male friends are able to date online and offline.
From what I've casually observed (which lines up with your guess) is that it is relatively easier for gay men to find others to meet/hookup with on almost any website (OkCupid, Grinder, Manhunt, etc) and also in real life.
One of my friends, who was not exceptionally attractive, witty or any other specific characteristic (let's say he's a 5/10) was able to get guys over to his apartment using Manhunt faster than I was able to get a pizza delivered. Not exaggerating a bit.
I have to wonder however, if the primary thing here is that its more equal 2-way attention. Men are actively looking for men, and men are actively looking for me. Whereas for heterosexual relationships it appears to be men looking for women, and women not looking for men.
If I remember right, OkCupid did some stuff on non-heterosexual relationships and it was interesting. I'll have to dig for that.
Way to erase a minority.
It also slightly feeds into the idea that "women have it easy!". I'd be interested if a straight female were to conduct a similar experiement and write it up. What would her perspectives be?