Americans' Over-Sensitive 'Gaydar' Misses Mark by 600%

A new survey conducted by Gallup indicated that Americans' estimates of the percentage of the US population that is homosexual is much higher than the actual proportion of gays and lesbians in the country.

A recent Gallup poll has exposed that Americans' estimates of the proportion of homosexuals in the United States are "many times higher" than the actual percentage, indicating a distorted perception of this demographic group among the US population.

"The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans' 25% estimate in 2011…These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender," the Gallup Poll revealed.

Remarkably, the National health Interview Survey released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in July, 2014 found that less than three percent of the American civilians labeled themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

Only 1.6 percent of adults said they were homosexual, and 0.7 percent self-identified as bisexuals. The overwhelming majority – more than 96 percent – classified themselves as straight.

According to Gallup, all available estimates of the actual homosexual population in the United States are "far lower" than what Americans estimate.

Americans Greatly Overestimate Percent Gay, Lesbian in U.S…. http://t.co/gbeapVeBko pic.twitter.com/LbhMoc9oie

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) 21 мая 2015

The Gallup report also revealed that younger Americans give higher estimates than older US civilians, claiming that the actual percentage of homosexuals is about 28 percent of the US population. 

According to the researchers, this phenomenon may be partly caused by Americans' lack of knowledge about statistics.

On the other hand, this overestimation may have its roots in a frequent media portrayal of gay characters on television, in movies and other media, as well as in "the high visibility of activists who have pushed gay causes, particularly legalizing same-sex marriage," the researchers elaborated.