Fruit Machine (homosexuality Test) - Faulty Test Parameters

Faulty Test Parameters

There were many problems with the "fruit machine." To begin with, the pupillary response test was based on fatally flawed assumptions: that visual stimuli would give an involuntary reaction able to be measured scientifically; that homosexuals and heterosexuals would respond differently to these stimuli; and that there were only two types of sexuality. There was also the problem of physiology. The researchers failed to take into account the varying sizes of the pupils and the differing distances between the eyes. Other problems that existed were that the pictures of the subjects' eyes had to be taken from an angle, as the camera would have blocked the subjects' view of the photographs if it were placed directly in front. Also, the amount of light coming from the photographs changed with each slide, causing the subjects' pupils to dilate in a way that was unrelated to their interest in the picture. Finally, the dilation of the pupils was also exceedingly difficult to measure, as the change was often smaller than one millimeter.

The idea was based on a study done by an American university professor, which measured the sizes of the subjects' pupils as they walked through the aisles of grocery stores.