We looked at race in one of our very first posts, and today I’d like to revisit the topic with fresh data. This article folds in millions of person-to-person interactions, what one human being thinks of another. As such, it’s different from a look at, say, unemployment numbers or test scores. So much data on race gives you people vs. the system. OkCupid’s gives you people vs. people. Basically, the site’s ten-year history has been one long episode of Judge Judy. Here’s the verdict on race.
Way Back in 2009
Five years ago, the basics of race and attraction on OkCupid looked like this:
– non-black men applied a penalty to black women
– while black men showed little racial preference either way
women
– all women preferred men of their own race
– but they otherwise penalized both Asian and black men
Here’s how the exact person-to-person numbers shook out:
The values in these tables are “preference vs. the average.” Think of them as how people weigh race in deciding attraction. So, for example, in the bottom-right corner of the lower table, you see that white women think white men are 17% more attractive than the average guy. Move one square to the left, and you see that they think Latinos are 1% above average, and so on.
The color is there to make the big trends easy to see.
Has Anything Changed?
In some ways, no. OkCupid users are certainly no more open-minded than they used to be. If anything, racial bias has intensified a bit. Here are the numbers for 2009 till now—use the slider to move through time. Like a javascript DeLorean.
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
These numbers reflect different people year-to-year. Together the charts fold in data from some 25 million accounts.
One interesting thing is to compare what you see above with what those same users have told us about their racial attitudes. Answers to match questions have been getting significantly less biased over time:
And yet the underlying behavior has stayed the same.
You can use other online data to see this split personality play out elsewhere. The night Obama was first elected was a moment of catharsis. It really felt like something had changed about the way America perceived and thought about race, and for at least that brief moment, the nation appeared united. No less than Karl Rove captured the moment well: “an African-American candidate who was aspirational and inspirational…is very powerful. It’s a night for our country to celebrate, and for the world to celebrate.”
Meanwhile, that same evening, American Google Searches for the word “nigger” hit an all-time high.†
Anyhow, whenever I talk about this data (or the race data in my book, Dataclysm) a few questions always seem to come up. So I figured I’d just answer them head-on here.
Q: Are people on OkCupid just racist?
No. I mean, not any more than anywhere else. All the dating data I’ve seen fits OkCupid’s pattern: black people and Asian men get short shrift. For example, below are the numbers from DateHookup, a site that we acquired a few years ago (but that still operates independently.) DateHookup has a distinct userbase, a distinct user acquisition model, a distinct interface, yet their data reflects the same basic biases:
While OkCupid is large enough that its demographics reflect the general Internet-using public, DateHookup is a niche site particularly popular with Latinos and blacks (those groups comprise 13% and 20% of the site, respectively.) Other sites in our portfolio, with still different demographics and business models, show the same attraction patterns.
Q: Is it possible that some small number of users is throwing off the averages?
These biases are pervasive in the data I’ve seen. For example, 82% of non-black men on OkCupid show some bias against black women. And, similarly, it’s not outliers among the women driving the results. It’s a wholesale phenomenon: the ratings for an entire population are shifted down.
Q: Are you saying that because I prefer to date [whatever race], I’m a racist?
On an individual level, a person can’t really control who turns them on—and almost everyone has a “type,” one way or another. But I do think the trend—that fact that race is a sexual factor for so many individuals, and in such a consistent way—says something about race’s role in our society. See below.
Q: All this data is from a dating site. What does that have to do with my life?
There are many situations that might not be explicitly romantic, but are nonetheless a lot like a first date. A job interview. Trying to rent an apartment. When you meet your freshman roommates. Anytime you’re trying to make an impression on a stranger. And science has long known that bonuses accrue to beautiful people: they have better outcomes at work and at school, more success with juries, even live longer lives, and so on. In short, “beautiful people” receive a lot of the same built-in benefits in our society that white people do.
I think that’s no coincidence. Beauty is a cultural idea as much as a physical one, and the standard is of course set by the dominant culture. I believe that’s what you see in the data here. One interesting thing about OkCupid’s interface is that we allow people to select more than one race, so you can actually look at people who’ve combined “white” with another racial description. Adding “whiteness” always helps your rating! In fact it goes a long way towards undoing any bias against you.

So, yes, this is all just dating data, but it shows who and what we define as beautiful. And that’s something that affects everyone.
What about same-sex ratings?
I see a log of the bias towards black women skewed b/c of a preponderance of high weight. Black gals who stay in shape, I see dudes falling all OVER them regardless of race.
You have failed to control for other variables that are highly correlated with race. For example, have you removed the effects of body type and income level from these interactions?
No, a women is going to be influenced by income. A man is going to be influenced by body type. You analysis of the data would ve more accurate, if the rating was only based on picture.
However, that approach would still cause people who dislike certain body types to be described as having a racial preference, when in fact they are driven by other qualities apparent in the photograph.
Honestly, this is bad work, since it does not adjust for all the social status biases that are communicated through the okcupid profile.
Interesting… I wonder how such data changes for different economic classes and intelligence levels.
This whole post seems racist. How about you normalize for attractiveness? What if a subgroup of users are all fat or have poor photography skills? This data is useless.
I think its funny that all of the comments so far are pretty much racist against black women and suggesting that they are, by and large, fat, poor, and unattractive.
Way to be terrible people OKC users.
For those who are saying that they didn’t control for things like body-type, i’d say that’s moot. They’re not looking at the attractiveness of different races, they’re looking at real-world examples. So if in the real world black women are more likely overweight (as someone below suggested), then that’s going to be reflected here.
I’d say controlling for income, weight, and other factors would be valid, but would be a different study.
Basically white women and the most desirable while black women are the least and white men are winning across the board…bruh!
I think the OkCupid folks found a pretty pervasive trend and the comments seem to be ignoring the data..
I’m one the people that answers all of the race questions in the same way that all the self-proclaimed “forward looking” people claim but I routinely swipe black women to the left and don’t pursue matches from most black women.
You can (and probably do) have a racial bias even if you’re a decent person.
I think this was great work. Harvard’s implict group put out a racial bias test if anyone is interested https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ but if you know how it works, you might cheat a bit to reduce the bias.
tl;dr- Maybe OkCupid should let users see their own usage statistics.
Basically you’re screwed when it comes to online dating if you’re black
It reminds me of this paper: Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange? http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/sapienza/htm/cultural_biases.pdf
I’m excited for your book, but if you’re going to use controversy to get coverage and drive sales, at least bring something new to the table, Christian.
No love for the asian dudes either Jared, and other dudes want our women.
“Basically white women and the most desirable while black women are the least and white men are winning across the board…bruh!”
What??? Your statement is misleading and your observation is flat out wrong.
Asian women and Latina women both come out as higher rated than white women. White men edge out Latino men and in general women prefer men of the same race, but there’s no real “across the board” any more than for any other preference for a group.
“Are you saying that because I prefer to date [whatever race], I’m a racist?
No. An individual can’t really control who turns them on—and almost everyone has a “type,” one way or another.”
–Actually, yes, it is racism. People have this misconception that you have to be screaming “I hate _ people” to be considered racist, but fail to consider the implicit racist notion of deeming someone unattractive or undatable on the basis of their race/perceived race.
Welp, so happy to see that as a black woman I should forgo this whole online dating thing and become a cat lady… Anyone want to donate my first kitten? Although, I am allergic to cats so if you can make them stuffed animals that would be great.
Ehizzle: I’d like to see that as well.
Russ in TX: That’s one way to explain the data. It’s something OkCupid could run a separate post on if they collected that information more specifically than “body type.”
Tanner: Let’s hope they make one of those. They should have the data available.
Regular Guy: You are misunderstanding the data. Part of statistics is knowing what your data is telling you. There is no need to normalize for attractiveness here. If blue men were uglier than average, this would be reflecting that. The post does not cover skin tones: it covers race. Physical attributes beside skin tone are contributing factors.
Bill: Hopefully my post doesn’t sound like it’s adding to that. My response above this one is purely hypothetical.
TJ Leeland: Exactly. I’m glad someone else understands this.
Jared: Not necessarily. As others have mentioned, there are other contributing factors. I don’t think Rihanna would have any issues. Ultimately you are (generally) only on this site to find one person. As the saying goes, the rest can go to hell.
As a web developer myself, I think a picture of a JavaScript-emblazoned DeLorean is definitely in order, ha! I love these statistics posts, keep up the interesting number crunching guys.
Good to know that as a black man I am completely wasting my time in the online dating world. It seems black women even have it worse. That’s a bit crazy.
there’s too many variables that make it sound like its just race. Honestly if i see a duck face i give a low rating everytime cuz you set yourself to look really lame. if everyone took care of their body, lifestyle, and career, almost every “race” should get a higher rating. Read the profile first before giving stars because the attractive ones can be pretty lame as well. plus its a free site so you have jerks flooding the site ratings just by look that doesnt give you a correct rating. So there is truth but i wouldnt count the survey to be completely true at all.
man this is fascinating. I’d love to see same sex statistics as well.
Like last time, are you normalizing for body type and height?
Black women tend to be obese. Something like 80% of them according to the CDC.
Asian men tend to be short.
Are men not interested in black women because they are black, or because they are obese? Are women not interested in asian men because they are asian, or because they are short?
What it’s saying is being a white male is the idealized normative standard. Given events in history that is understandable, the point is that it was constructed that way.
Some people are saying that construct is not influencing their behavior, it just ‘happens’ to be their preference.
If that is the case it’s still less about racism more about prejudice. Conditioned prejudice.
Why do YOU think everyone is striving for white (the standard)? For whatever reason it’s leaving black and asian men and more so black woman behind.
I noticed you guys are making decisions based on your own personal preference instead of thinking in accordance with the new and approved
thought police standards.
The world isn’t what we expect it to be, therefore the world is wrong. Feel bad, and fix yourselves.
*shrug*
You don’t need everyone to think you’re attractive, just the *right* one.
Besides, Black folks, we know who’s killin’ it in the looks department after age 40. It ain’t whites, Asians, or even Latinos as much.
Just think about that when this shit hurts a bit.
It’s petty, yes, but nevertheless tends to be true. I look at the white people on the site who are my age, and most look at least 10 years older. So even if you could get one of the oh-so-desirable whities (assuming you want one, which many of us don’t), they’re usually cute and legal for about 15 years, and then you’ll likely end up with someone who looks like your high school biology teacher.
You have to normalize for MATCH PERCENTAGE too. Because damn, I apply some fucking rigor to my quickmatch. And I pay attention to match scores.
Thing is, CULTURE plays a huge part in how I rate (or choose to message) women on OKC.
Southern Baptists of ANY color will get 1 star and hidden by me. Thing is , a very large percentage of black women have conservative cultural values that I find repellant. Am I racist because I am repelled by their belief that gays shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children, or that men should be the heads of their household, or that their religion is extremely important to them?
Can we get statistics by geography? State/country? Same sex attraction? Age ranges?
Fear not, there is always blackplanet.com!
Interesting. I would like to know the statistics to the same-sex relationships.
Actually no, Adam, it’s NOT racism, in spite of your attempts at race baiting. How many COUNTLESS studies have we seen where a man tends to look for women that show traits of and remind them of their mother, and vice versa of women, who similarly look for men who remind them of their father? All the time! It’s a simple matter of fact that for white, latino, or Asian male, a black woman simply does not look anything like their mother, and vice versa. It’s not racism. It’s natural biology. That said, if two people of different races are happy and love one another, who are we to judge? But that IS in fact what you are doing…judging those who happen to not find a certain race attractive, and attempting to redefine the very definition of race.
A lot of people are saying this is racist. But I don’t think that is the case.
I’m white and tend to find Latino women more attractive. But I don’t think this is any more racist than preferring brunette over blond. It’s just a preference.
are you sure this is about race and not about weight?
Interesting analysis. I wonder if sexuality and/or location (East vs West Coast vs Midwest etc) made any difference in the numbers.
Everyone talking about how the article forgot to account for other factors are making irrelevant points.
If you think it’s an issue of body type, then the implication you’re making is that certain races tend to be fatter than other races, or tend to make less money than other races, or tend to be worse educated than other races, or tend to be shorter than other races, etc.
I think that implication is actually irrelevant, because the findings still correlate with race. The implication is only implying that some other factor that equally affects attraction also correlates with race which is a moot point.
The reason why it’s a moot point is because statistics do a great job of illuminating trends across large groups but really are meaningless when it comes to individuals. Everyone should already know that your odds at life, success, and dating all increase when you increase your own individual attractiveness as much as you can. Get in shape, get an education, get a better job, take care of your acne, learn people skills, get your teeth taken care of, etc. Doesn’t really matter what race you are then as most everybody is desperate to trade up, and the pool of well-groomed, independent, educated bachelors/women is rather low.
TL:DR – jus b urself
“Adding “whiteness” always helps your rating!”
I’m curious how this compares to adding a second (or third) non-white race.
For example, what’s the average rating of a black/Asian woman? Or Latino/Asian?
I’d read the book!
Dilemma for 40-45 year old women who haven’t had kids yet but do want them- -that men their age want younger women and older men don’t want more kids if they have any. I’d be curious if you’d look into the phenomenon. In the real world, you don’t select as strictly by age. But online, cutoffs are strict.
People want to date themselves (for the most part), it’s not a surprise when someone doesn’t want to date a person who looks completely different – It’s inherent. We inherently pick our mates from the same relative gene pool. It is biological but it is not learned or biological racism… The racism thing you are trying to trump up is obviously to sell a few more books or you’re not truly understanding or seeing this topic from an objective – scientific approach.
I’m a black female and I’m doing just fine on this site..i get messages from all sorts of dudes. I think you have to control for things other an just race..
What does Asian mean? Does it include all different people from Asia like Indian, Chinese, Middle East, Cambodia, Philippine?
I’ve noticed alot of single white girls in the city that no one is interested. Hispanic girls are extremely popular nowadays.
I’m a black woman. I’m also plus sized. I do receive messages from white men on Okc, young and old. I check for that particular question sometimes, about strongly preferring to date within their race. Some have selected Yes. It kind of disgusts me to know ppl are still close minded in 2014. Then if I call them out on that question, they lie or say they don’t take these questions serious on here. I will say Okc and other sites are filled will racist ppl. Well, lets say undercover racist. I know firsthand. I have been called bad things when a guy has gotten ticked off with me online. Most won’t show that side until you have a disagreement or if I chose not to hook up. Then here comes the “N” word. I’m not sure why most think black women are ugly. I receive compliments and I know black women are beautiful. I’m not sure why we’re always attacked about our looks. I just wished people would lay off sometimes. I could go on and on but I won’t. If ppl were open minded and got over ethnicity or body weight then most might be happier. It’ll never happen because most are shallow toads. I will say it’s quite a few white men who like BBW and black women behind closed doors. They’re so concerned about how friends, family and society will view them though, that’s why most hide it.
Done with my rant lol
Interesting statistics. This article forget to mention that the poll is skewed towards the American population. Contra this with European counterparts which are more open towards interracial relationships and you’ll get a much more different results
I wonder in which category middle eastern are reflected in to? White or Asian? Racially they are considered white but at first impression they get a negative response even from other white races, which would cause serious result shifts in your results. (not including the religios impact, even more with that) Also wondering Middle Eastern population’s representation in their group among all these years and if they have caused a change in the pattern. Probably okcupid had more nort american members in 2009 when compared to today.
Also I wonder the effect of religion in these statistics. Some groups probably hold more religious groups in them. and its not a secret that they hold a prejudice against eachother.
I’m sorry, but all of this data is
irrelevant when you fail to add other. Mixed Raced people especially.
Could it be a cultural thing?
I have seen 5 profiles of black women (Germany) and all of them seemed very religious (putting “Bible” and “God” in the six things they couldn’t do without).
Didn’t write any of them, but wouldn’t write to strongly religious types even if they had been white or asian…
man i stay dating black women.
rarely do i see the hottest ones in campus on dating sites.
Thank you very much for compiling this information and stating it plainly. You earn more of my respect every day, OKC.
White supremacy is evil! Most White people are racist. So much so, minorities come to hate themselves because of White racism.
I HATE stuff like this…. Can someone, anyone PLEASE explain how a person can or can not be physically at a specific face. A group of people with SIMILAR qualities but an array of different physical feature.
I 100% believe (at least in Asian and Black sub races) people are un attracted because of a stereotype established by the media and the upper echelon and an unwillingness to get to know people and broaden your horizon.
Let’s face it peoples “racial preferences” in dating ALL have racial undertones. Our brains naturally don’t have the mental capacity to literally dislike or be unattracted to races. It’s a mental block we as people put there to maintain the “pecking order” socially.
Those with that mindset are only fooling themselves. In 2014 me as a black man should be able to walk down the street with my caucasian or Asian girlfriend and get the same response I would if I was with a black woman. People are fickle
“Are men not interested in black women because they are black, or because they are obese?”
I tend not to write to black women because they tend to be super-religious. I don’t write to super-religious white women, either. Religion annoys the bejezus out of me. If I could find a fit, well-educated, atheist black woman nearby, I’d go out with her, no problem.
There is a near-universal attraction among males for lighter-skinned females, which is why skin-lightening creams are so popular in Asia and Africa. When you watch Asian (and I mean East and South Asian) television, you wonder, “Who are these actors?” In color they don’t resemble anyone on the street. Of course, in breast size and other cosmetic and steroid enhancements, maybe American actors don’t resemble normal people either.
Several reasons have been suggested for this, including males instinctively preferring females with enough recessive traits (e.g. light skin) that the children will resemble the father (paternal resemblance–>paternal confidence). Black women are chock-full o’ dominant goodness, e.g. dark skin, brown eyes, dark hair, and curly hair.
Race correlates with all kinds of other things. One poster here noted that black women tend to be more religious (I’ve noticed the same thing), which is an immediate turnoff to us atheists. American black men have dramatically higher rates of criminality than white men (e.g. 5x the murder rate, probably because of the Drug War and not because of a predisposition), so women, all other things being equal, would be expected to discriminate. The high level of incarceration in the US is not improving black men’s brand.