Gemini, make a couple that looks very Mormon without including explicit symbols of Mormonism like a temple or Book of Mormon. 

“Modar” is a fun derivation (I think) of “gaydar,” but where people can supposedly identify a Latter-day Saint in the wild by sight. My Modar is pretty good, and I have East Coast, never-Mo, never-Utahn friends who claim to have it. There was even a study that confirmed that people are better than chance at guessing who is and isn’t LDS.  

My own theory about this. 

Physiogonomy

Shooting from the hip I’d guess the mean “Utah pioneer Mormon” is about 60% British, 20% other Northern European, and 20% other, and ethnically this combination adds up to the “Mormon look.” As you can see from the map below, we’re basically New Englanders with some additional blond people (tropes involving Mormon families often involve blond kids, the kernel of truth there may be the Northern European ancestry a lot of Utahns have).

Fashion

I had a colleague who did some research on Mormons who pointed out that she could always tell who the Mormons were at academic conferences because they wear light blue shirts. A few other things:

• No tattoos. More distinctive now that they’re becoming more popular.
• Fewer high heels (too inconvenient with kids).
• On that note, we’re not exactly Milan runway types in general. Again, convenience is big for family living.
• I sometimes feel like the only people who wear white sleeveless shirts now are the techs at the office and people who have the habit from their mission.

Cultural Norms about Cheerfulness and Politeness

• Our first Sunday after moving to Philadelphia we saw a fresh-faced, wholesome looking couple with their toddler clearly walking to church in their Sunday best. I thought they looked Mormon, and then upbraided myself for thinking that we had a monopoly on fresh-faced wholesome looking white people walking to church. And then of course we go to church and found out they were in our ward. So yes, there is something to just being a Mr. Rogers type. I’m going to add “the spirit,” “the light in their eyes” to this category since I kind of think that’s part of what that’s tracking. 

Health

• That Modar paper actually hypothesized that the effect was from health. I’m a little skeptical. Obviously we don’t smoke or drink, and there is definitely a look of somebody who has smoked or drunk way too much. So yes, we don’t have that. That being said, I doubt we eat more fruits and vegetables than other people, were not Bay-area triathlete vegetarians, so I don’t think we have any more of that natural glow (demonstrated by another study) that vegetable eaters get.

Behavioral Odds and Ends

• The other day I was at one of the few Cafe Rios on the East Coast, and there was a gregarious father there with his daughter in the middle of the day-I would have bet a $100 right there what his religion was.