Random Scientific Study Suggests There's No Such Thing As "Straight" People (13 items)

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  (#1) A 2015 Study Said All Women Experience Some Attraction To More Than One Gender

  In 2015, researchers at Cornell University and the University of Essex studied the arousal of women when viewing sexually explicit material. In the study, researchers studied female-identifying volunteers and determined if they were experiencing arousal by observing eye dilation. The women were shown sexual stimuli, some featuring men and some featuring women. The result? All of the women, whether reporting to be gay, straight, or somewhere else on the spectrum, experienced some degree of attraction to both men and women. This indicated that individual women tend to range in their sexuality, at least when gauged on "male-typical sexual response" stimuli, on which the study was premised.
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  (#2) The Study Showed That Gay-Identifying Women Are More Attracted To Women Than Straight Women Are To Men

  The 2015 study from Cornell University included 345 women who were shown videos of either attractive men or attractive women engaged in sexual acts. While both heterosexual-identifying and homosexual-identifying women in the study experienced some degree of arousal to the two genders, there was an ultimate difference. For the homosexual women in the group, they experienced arousal to their preferred gender (other women) 68% of the time. However, heterosexual women experienced arousal to their preferred gender (men) only 28% of the time.
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  (#3) The Kinsey Scale Introduced The Idea That Sexuality Is A Spectrum To Modern Western Audiences

  Western society's understanding of sexuality changed greatly starting in 1948, with the creation of The Kinsey Scale. Developed by Drs. Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, and Clyde Martin through their work entitled Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and their 1953 follow-up, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, the scale goes from zero to six. Zero means completely heterosexual, and six is completely homosexual. This means that spots 1-5 are for different levels of same-sex attraction in between. 

  So, someone who is a three would experience equal attraction to men and women, while one and two would be closer to straight, and four to five would be closer to gay. It was a remarkable revelation at the time, but sexuality has proven to be far more complex than that.
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  (#4) Lesbians Tend To Have Higher Self-Esteem Than Straight Women

  One of the directors of the 2015 study of women's sexual attraction was Dr. Ritch C. Savin-Williams, psychology professor at Cornell. Based on the study, he observed, "If you look at women, the self-esteem of lesbian women tends to be higher than that of straight women." He thinks one reason for this is that gay women "feel like they have more freedom (to be who they really are)." While women who identify as straight might feel societal pressure to not acknowledge if they also experience some attraction to women.
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  (#5) For Years It Was Believed The Idea Of Being 'Mostly Straight' Only Applied To Women

  The Kinsey Scale introduced many to the concept of human sexuality as a spectrum, with many people not being completely straight or completely gay. However, there appeared to be an imbalance along gender lines when it came to people reporting themselves as "mostly straight." Dr. Savin-Williams (one of the researchers of the 2015 study) said:

  We've always recognized mostly straight women, that is, women who mostly are straight but if the right woman comes along, well maybe she'll try it out. We used to think that was only a female phenomenon.

  So while the 2015 study focused on women's sexuality aligned with pupil dilation and traditionally "masculine" stimuli, researchers acknowledged that a separate study needed to be conducted to observe sexual attraction in men to see if it matched up — a hypothesis Dr. Savin-Williams refers to as the "mostly straight male" idea.
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  (#6) Fluid Sexuality Is Being More Widely Acknowledged

  In 2017, Dr. Ritch C. Savin-Williams published a book, "Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity among Men." In the book, he observed a growing tendency of men to identify themselves not as completely straight, but as "mostly straight." Savin-Williams mentioned a poll that found, among men in the US age 18-24, that 6% said their sexual attraction was directed toward "mostly opposite sex."

  However, when these men were asked to identify as either straight, gay, or bi, about three-quarters of the representation identified themselves as straight. Savin-Williams said this indicated that these men felt the term "bisexual" implied more of an even split than what they experience in real life, so they chose straight, with potential caveats.
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  (#7) Many Men Have Culturally Been Afraid To Admit Feeling Attraction To Other Men

  Dr. Savin-Williams said his study of men who identify as straight showed that they do experience some attraction to men. In the study, straight men displayed eye dilation while observing erotic material featuring a woman, but also often showed some eye dilation when they observed men in sexual situations as well. "There are aspects (of male sexuality) along a continuum, just as we have always recognized with women," he said. "Men have gotten so much cultural crap put on them that even if a man does have some sexual attraction to guys, they would never say it."
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  (#8) Learning About The Sexual Spectrum Helps People To Be Proud Of Their Attractions

  As society learns that it's perfectly normal for people to not be 100% straight or 100% gay, it will allow people to be more comfortable stating their true sexual identity and accepting others for doing the same. "I do see this loosening of the boundaries," said Dr. Savin-Williams. "It's probably a good thing, because it gives kids growing up more diversity, more options." He added, "Straight women and straight men feel much more comfortable than ever before in going into the realm of the other sex in terms of gender role and how they act."
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  (#9) Experiencing Arousal From Someone Of A Specific Gender Is Not The Same As Attraction

  Dr. Meredith Chivers, another researcher on the 2015 study, pointed out that just because they observed women aroused by sexual images of other women doesn't mean they have an actual sexual desire to be with them. "To conclude that women are bisexual on the basis of their sexual responding overlooks the complexity and multidimensionality of female sexuality," she said.

  However, she added the study may indicate that there "may be... greater potential for bisexuality in women than in men."
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  (#10) Measuring Eye Dilation Is A Proven, Non-Invasive Method For Measuring Arousal

  When studying arousal, the most direct way to measure would typically involve observing changes in a participants' genitalia. However, due to the invasiveness of that procedure, that is less than ideal. However, researcher Dr. Gerulf Rieger conducted a study that showed a 100% link between arousal and pupil dilation, which means that measuring the pupils alone can be enough to determine arousal in a participant. This, in turn, means it's easier to get people to participate in arousal studies if researchers only have to look into their eyes and not anywhere else.
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  (#11) Sensuality May Be More Important To Women Than Gender

  Dr. Chivers of the 2015 study observed that straight women weren't likely to experience arousal while viewing men in non-sexual situations. Instead, what produced the most arousal was viewing footage with a high degree of sensuality, which could involve people of any gender.

  Couples featuring a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and a man all drew responses from straight women. "Women physically don’t seem to differentiate between genders in their sex responses, at least heterosexual women don’t," she said. “For heterosexual women, gender didn’t matter. They responded to the level of activity.”
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  (#12) Millennials Are More Likely To Identify Themselves Somewhere In The Middle Of The Sexual Spectrum

  When it comes to understanding that human sexuality is more complex than simply straight/gay/bi, Millennials are statistically proving to be more progressive and open-minded than older generations. A 2015 study of adults in the US under 30 years old found that 78% identified as completely straight. Four percent identified as completely homosexual. However, 16% said they are somewhere in between, with 10% saying they are more heterosexual than homosexual.

  Three percent said they are more gay than straight, and another 3% said they are right in the middle. According to reporting on the study, ultimately "31% of under-30s plot themselves as something other than exclusively heterosexual."
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  (#13) 'Mostly Straight' Men Are Becoming More Comfortable With Potential Experimentation

  In the past, the idea of a straight man having occasional sexual thoughts or activity involving another man would have had many thinking he's not actually straight after all, and cultural backlash around this has made it even more stigmatized. But researchers like Dr. Savin-Williams say that "mostly straight" males are real, and are becoming more open about it.

  "The mostly straight man belongs to a growing trend of young men who are secure in their heterosexuality yet remain aware of their potential to experience far more," he said. "He knows he’s not gay, but straight with a dash of gayness ... a relatively small percentage, say around 5% to 10%, of his sexual and romantic feelings."

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