When the Opposite is True

I find it exciting when researchers find that the data point in the opposite direction to what they expected. An Error Of Overperception?

Contrary to previous research, we actually found underperception of sexual interest – people in our studies had a preference for answering that the person was not interested. Moreover, women were overperceiving interest while men were underperceiving it – completely opposite to what we had predicted. 

 But don't get excited

That said, this bias rarely came into play, as participants in both studies were highly accurate at telling if a person was interested in them or not, even with the intentionally confusing behaviors used in Study 2.

So yes, they found the opposite of expectation, but not enough to matter.  It's the ancient rabbis again: "Perhaps the opposite is also true," which is also beloved of all Chesterton fans. I'm glad they published anyway. Research into sex and attraction sells pretty well, and it's why a lot of people go into the field to begin with.  Talking about sex while claiming to be an intellectual is a pretty good gig.

Of course, that finger points back at me, doesn't it? 

The logo for HBES is quite clever, BTW.