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.
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I met my Asian husband on your site in 2009. Thank you okcupid! We just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary and will soon be celebrating our daughters first birthday!
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dam it’s been a long time. I wish there were more.
Jews did 911? LOL.
oh, but it was on the internet, so it MUST be true… haha… yeah, right weirdo.
The Rothchilds & their ilk converted to xtianity a loooong time ago… so xtians did 911. you know, the guys who own the Federal reserve along with the rest of the Earth? yeah… those folks. the 911 terrorists are white jesus lovers, British, Dutch, Belgian, German, French & American. no non-whites or Jews were involved. but jesus lovers were.
you bought into the conspiracy theory terrorist Bushes White House belched out, then went right to sleep, didn’t you?
re: “niggers”… last time anyone who matters checked, the only “niggers” are white. a non-white “nigger” has yet to be found. so far, they appear to be mythological so the white ones misdirect attention away from themselves. seriously… anyone who’s so lazy that they enslave other human beings to work for them… is a full-on “nigger”- so let’s be civil, truthful & clear what & who a “nigger” is.
at least the Africans owned the word. makes you wonder what the non-Africans will do to deal with the harsh, brutal reality of it.
the only social, cultural or political marxist pc dictators are the white Eurotrash that invaded an entire hemisphere of the Earth & waged a scorched earth policy & genocide on the false xtian cult mindset of “manifest destiny” of murder, blood thirst, suffering, famine, rape & greed in order to satisfy their psychopathic evil “god” & idiotic blind ignorant followers who will believe anything & look for any excuse to wage cruelty and sadism upon other living beings.
so yes… as you said Samantha, too many concessions have been made in OUR LANDS (not yours Samantha-) so why don’t you go back to YOUR LANDS in Europe, and let the rest of humanity alone to do its things while you do your thing. no one will tell you who to date- and you sure won’t be telling the rest of us who to date either.
really Samantha?? REALLY?!? the world is telling you who to date? REALLY?? i live in the same country & continent you do & no one has ever told me on an official level who i may or may not date in any form of media or to my face. NOT ONCE. so how is it you are attracting all of this attention? probably because you aren’t. that’s what liars do.
even if someone is “telling you who to date” – you’re perfectly free to laugh & ignore it and take your happy ass to the bar & go pick up who you want. but if hateful, fearful little non-human evil racists like you had your way, that wouldn’t be good enough because your sad pathetic little selves love misery & you prefer to force others to do as you do & be a carbon copy of you, which is stupid, laughable & text-book criminally nutzo all rolled into one big messy racist ball not fit to wipe an ass with.
you can hide behind socially polite talk to appear you are pc no-racist all day, but i won’t. ugly is ugly. tag you’re it.
oh yes… cool black girl who hates your life yet loves what you love… don’t let what others think matter, because it doesn’t. what i say doesn’t matter & what the people above & below me say doesn’t matter either. the only thing that matters is that YOU LOVE YOURSELF & you recognize that no one can make you feel any emotion without your permission.
you’re too good for a pity party. so buck up, be you, be positive, be happy & fuck anyone who wants to piss on your cornflakes.
Man, Chinese and Indian descent I believe account for some 30-50% of the population, and you lump them together? That’s some risky business. Furthermore, I think the op should be careful to inform the reader of the facts instead of their personal opinion. That’s a slippery slope. You want to build your credibility, not diminish it.
Regardless, black women are definitely getting the shaft. I assume the majority of this data is from the US? I’m a straight male, so I can’t speak for men, but I’m sorry, the “ghetto girl” persona is /not/ attractive in the slightest! Seen some extremely hot black girls in canada, but they haven’t been exposed to the US black culture!
Data seems off. According to this data black men and white women hate each other yet the second most common interracial marriages are between black and white couples. Asian and white being the first.
Oddly, as someone in that Doesn’t-Get-Messaged-Doesn’t-Get-Answered category, this comes as an incredible relief. It’s a lot like going to the doctor: even if the news is bad, simply having a sound diagnosis (“The condition has a name, which means I’m not the only one who’s ever had it!”) somehow makes everything much easier to deal with. Maybe it’s because it sets (or adjusts) expectations.
In any event, took a load off of my mind. Excellent work as always; can’t wait to read the book!
It would be telling if the age and location of the people used to gather this data were available. My assumption is that the older generation would use okcupid to find a potential mate.
Did you test for confounders or effect modifiers? Adjust for age? Racism is certainly a problem in society, but black women have the highest percentage of being overweight or obese of any race/gender, and most people just don’t find fat attractive. If you didn’t adjust for this it could skew your results.
Hitler was a great man.
Hitler did nothing wrong.
The holocaust never happened.
youtube.com/watch?v=zGwn5R1PC9Q
Every time I get the brush off or more often the ‘non response’ I chuckle just a bit. I 1st realize their profile was rubbish….meaning what they said was not what they meant…2nd they have no idea what a great guy they are missing out on. Maybe not for dating material but certainly someone thats cool to know. I have 2 masters….I speak 3 languages…and I made my 1st million before I was 30…..of course I don’t mention it in my profile. My gold digger phrase has run its course. My parents are of mixed race Afro/Latino and we moved to states from England….culturally the US is far behind. I have no preference as far as ethnicity…I read the profiles..even the questions before I message them.
I get more unsolicited messages from religious types even though my profiles says ‘atheist’….yet I still respond. I may need to move back to the UK…lots of great women with high match %….Canada too but its just too cold up there for me. The southeastern US is not a great place to find open minds….about dating. You may never know who is good for you if you keep trying to judge the book my its cover.
black ghetto. not all black people are from low-income neighborhoods and not all people that live in low-income neighborhoods are black. if you equate the two, you have a very limited and biased perception of black women. it’s stupid when someone applies such a one-dimensional/misinformed view to an entire group of people. if you’re arguing that you’re not physically attracted to someone, that’s one thing, but to attribute a “persona” to a specific racial group doesn’t make sense. it would be akin to someone saying “i don’t like white men because i hate that cowboy/WASP/Boston brahmin persona.”
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This is interesting, and far from unexpected. But do you publish the corresponding data for men seeking men? Based on my observations, I strongly suspect that the skew in racial preference will be even more pronounced amongst the gay users, with a very high percentage of Asian guys rejecting anything other than white partners, and many white guys rejecting any South Asian or other darker-skinned guys.
I say this as someone who finds myself only attracted to white or very-light-skinned north Asian guys, as much as that frustrates and embarrasses me – because that visceral ‘attraction’ stubbornly refuses get in line with what is otherwise my very diversity-embracing philosophical outlook.
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What is a a white or black man exactly?
Phwahahahahaaa
Race means what exactly?
Yep the science of crap.
stupid mess… you are scoring crap, about peoples identity of themselves… which is fickle.
I guess I’m a minority here. I don’t have a hard and fast racial preference when it comes to women. My biggest turn offs are: Gold Diggers, the degree of being superficial, women with bad credit, smokers, drug users, criminal past, violence. I like curvy women, but not morbidly obese women. (my own level of being superficial I suppose). I don’t like crude people, nor do I like rap or country music, women who like these types of music I tend to avoid because it implies a certain cultural tendencies that I find very undesirable: Ghetto Culture and White “Trailer Park” Trash. When it comes to Racism, I’ve seen it all and it cuts across all races, religions and both sexes.
I don’t like dating women who choose YES to the question regarding racial preference in who they date.
I also strongly avoid women who are real hard core Christian Bible Thumpers.
I do have a preference for Jewish women, but I’m open to women from all types of religions so long as they don’t try to convert me or argue with me about the correctness of their religious views.
Politics – I don’t care what politics they have so long as they have an open mind and agree to disagree.
My first girlfriend was Black with some White and Creek Indian, my ex wife is Chinese. I think I might like to try some nice Latina’s since I like Mexican food or some Italian women (I also like Italian food)
How does race play into the gay community? Do the numbers say the same thing as the straight community?
Ihatemylife: I can’t stop thinking about your comment; I know exactly where you’re coming from, because I felt the same sense of devastation after reading the 09 study. If you’re still following the comments, please message me. And keep your head up. I’ve learned some things I think you should know. <3
Please, please, please issue a similar analysis with regards to gay and lesbian users. I think it would be very informative and enlightening, just as this is.
No one to my knowledge has issued a study regarding the LGBT’s dating racial preferences.
I have my own observations, but it would be good to have real data.
Christian, please please please release the data for every ethnic group. I’m waaaay too interested.
Did you lie to people to get these statistics, too?
Stupid leftists trying to force their ways onto everyone else.
If a woman says she prefers tall men, nobody cares, but if someone prefers to date their own race then everyone loses their minds.
And since you felt the need to mention Obama, I’d say his poor performance and divisiveness definitely failed to “bring America together”.
If I publically said “I prefer dating exclusively within my race”, I’d likely be fired from my job, so don’t pretend like nobody is forcing anyone to date interracially. It is de facto forced.
ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
As a black woman who does fairly well online, I suspect the real reason for the low response rate for most black women is obesity. Four out of five black women are overweight or obese. Most men prefer women who are height/weight proportionate. In the real world, men will lower their standards in accordance to what is readily available, but online there is no reason to start a dialogue with someone you find unattractive. Not where there are plenty of other profiles to focus on.
OKC you should do a study on weight and responses. I know if would be difficult because so many women select “average” when they are clearly overweight, but I think it would be a helpful eye opener for all women and men to see exactly how their excess weight is hindering them.
Americans…
There’s another very obvious conclusion :
“WOMEN HAVE A HIGHER RACIAL BIAS THAN MEN”
or is this `politically incorrect´ to mention ?
These stats are rather heteronormative. :/
In my friend’s web blogs they already have provided me on the website rolls, but mine usually is located at the bottom on the listing and does not selection when I place as it does for some individuals. Is this a placing that I have to difference or is this a choice they may have considered? . dedffddcedea
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This is hilarious. So this is science huh? Let me get this straight, what you are saying is if you had to choose between Gabrielle Union or Iman versus Melissa Rivers or Rosie O’Donnell, you would choose Melissa and Rosie automatically because they are white? If you had to choose between Selita Banks or Lupita Ny’Yongo over Soon Yi Previn and Margaret Cho, you’d choose Margaret and Soon Yi over the other two? If you had to choose between Taye Diggs and Morris Chestnut over Lous C K and Danny Devito, you’d choose Louis CK? Bwahahahahahahaha! Science. Ok. Meanwhile, most people are overwhelmingly marrying their own kind throughout the world with a small percentage marrying of their own kind. Since the beginning of time and will continue to be so. Don’t compare apples to oranges. Iman is an apple and Margaret Cho is another.
Instead of improving the site so he creates a more inclusive environment, this Harvard geek who probably could never get laid if he didn’t have money, is seemingly gloating in this very questionable data he gathered. Could it be that black people on OK Cupid are those who are open to interracial dating and since most black people are not, they are on other sites? Also the white men on OK Cupid are those who are interested in dating White or dating close to white? Black women are getting dates on black sites. Go figure! If not, how do you account for them having children and dating people? This is beyond dumb. Next.
The only way these stats could have any merit is if you could ensure that the same level of attractiveness that each race had to offer was represented on your site. Based on cultural norms of some races, I find that highly unlikely.
I’m guessing that the writer of this study either lives in a “race bubble” and assumes that all races have the same cultural attitudes towards online dating or that the writer isn’t intelligent enough to understand the importance of matching demographic characteristics.
Useless study
As an Asian woman, I am appalled by this study and do not find this fetish finding a compliment. In the end, it does not look at any of us women as human beings. I know plenty of my Black girlfriends, White girlfriends and Asian girlfriends who do not fit into anyone’s “category”. Beware of bigotry disguised as approval. This is coming from a CEO who asked its users to ban Mozilla because of its support of Gay Rights. The CEO of OK Cupid is a bigot. Plain and simple. His data proves it.
Anything to sell his “book”. Whatever. So skewed and so limited. Meanwhile, real people are living and loving people in real life.
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Shouldn’t we just say that this data doesn’t matter? Take from it what you will, it’s an interesting observation/study, but there are too many variables. In the end everyone is going to be attracted to and date whoever the fuck they want. Life is unfair. There are a whole lot of ignorant pricks in the world, but also people who just have a physical preference. Are we going to psycho-analyze each person to determine the underlying motivation for attraction to a certain race(s)? …because we could be her a while
I am a white female who has a child of mixed race. She is an amazing little girl and there is something to said for genetic variation. I’m attracted to all races and have dated black, white and Hispanic. My preferences are no better or worse than anyone else’s.
Is a preference for race better or worse than a preference for age, height, weight, etc.? Maybe it is. I don’t know and am just wondering.
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I hate saying this, but I think the progression of excess bias is a good example of how we’re getting more and more less educated people on this site.
The beginnings of OkC was more a geek/nerd dating site…
Canada is 64% Racist and 36% Diverse.
Australia is 69% Racist and 31% Diverse.
Europe is 82% Racist and 18% Diverse.
The U.S. is 62% Racist and 38% Diverse.
END RACISM NOW!!!
WE NEED MORE DIVERSITY!!!
– Anti-racist logic
“Diversity” means chasing down the last white person.
It’s White Genocide.
“Anti-racist” is a codeword for anti-white.
Christian Rudder: I had the privilege of meeting you and attending your interview event at the JCCSF last night. You brought a nice blend of thoughtfulness and humor to a quantitative topic. I look forward to reading your book!
You joked that more time you spend with the data, the more it confirms a cynics inclination. Do you have suggestions to approach this type of behavioral data and not let it make you feel cynical? I am a novice data scientist who enjoys searching for answers but sometimes struggle with this.
@LOL
You should speak to a therapist because you clearly have bipolar personality disorder and delusions of grandeur. Did you even read what you wrote in your hate filled “rant”? You probably think you are “enlightened” and “can see through the white conspiracy”. You also probably think you are “black rights activist” dropping “knowledge bombs” on fellow blacks so that they can see the truth, while making white people afraid that you have seen through their lies.
Also, the amount of “afrocentrism” in your post is overwhelming. The ancient egyptians and arabs were probably the two great “black” civilizations that you were talking about. Guess what? They were “brown” not “black”, that’s not to say there weren’t any “black” people in their civilizations, just that they were majority “brown”. You can ask their descendants, the modern egyptians and arabs or better yet their historians and they can tell you how full of bullshit you are. In addition, the only people who ever came close to conquering the world were the mongols and they were asian not black again. So stop doing mental gymnastics and pick up an actual history book once in a while.
The only point I can agree with you on is your reply to @I hate my life…, especially the part where you write “what i say doesn’t matter”. Did you have a stroke or did you realize that you are just a hateful bigot.
As we are talking about RACE it is nonsense to put south asian and east asian men in one category, because south asians are genetically nearer to europeans than to east asians (thanks to the Himalaya).
My guess is that some data which puts those two groups in different categories would show that east asian men are perceived as being even more unattractive (especially by non-east asian women) than the data above shows. South asian men are probably not far away from whites.