What If There Weren’t So Many White People?

March 15th, 2011 by Christian Rudder

As far as I've been able to tell, America has three Big Ideas about race relations:

#1: Pistols.

#2: Chumpriding.

and #3, which kind of follows from the other two: American race relations suck.

Obviously, this post isn't going to change that, but we are going to do something a little different, a thought experiment. Since most thinking about race hinges on the fact that one particular race predominates, what if, using statistical models, you could make that predominance disappear?

Right now, even on a per capita basis, whites gets more messages than non-whites on OkCupid:

But how much of this reflects whites' "popularity" and how much reflects their population? What would this graph look like in a racially-balanced world? How would people's choices change, if the people to choose from weren't mostly of one race?

This post is based on 82 million messages sent on OkCupid over the last few months. Here's what we found.

Our data set

OkCupid is actually less white than the rest of the U.S. Internet, though it's hard to make direct group-to-group comparisons because Quantcast (our national demographic source) doesn't have multiracial data.

For this post, to keep the discussion streamlined and accurate, I'll only include OkCupid's largest single-race groups: whites, asians, blacks, and latinos.

Where To Start

When you look at the messages sent by each of our four biggest racial groups, it's actually kind of amazing how much white people are flooding the market. In raw terms, everybody, whites and non-whites alike, sends white people most of their messages. Broken down by the race of the sender and the recipient, here's what we have:

The above chart actually undersells how much attention whites get, because I assigned equal widths to the four vertical bars representing the message senders. To properly present reality, we should adjust those widths according the size of each population, like so:

You can think of that whole square up there as the dating "pie", and, as it stands, whites get 89% of it. But let's look deeper into the numbers. Thus, our experiment begins.

Here's the data for Asians.

  • As the chart above shows, Asians send about 3 times as many messages to whites as they send to other Asians:
  • However, as we saw before, whites outnumber Asians 19:1 on the site:
  • Putting this messaging and population information together, we get these ratios:
  • Well, what if we rescale these ratios? What if there were 10 whites and 10 Asians instead? How many message would go to each?
  • Our experiment tells us that, given equal numbers, Asians would actually overwhelming prefer to message other Asians.

It turns out that if you bust out your mechanical pencil and use it to punch the "on" button on your laptop and then, with that computer, extend the same kind of analysis to the other groups, you get a fresh sense of American race preferences.

In a world without so many white people, where everyone has an equal choice, that first graph we saw—the average monthly messages people get—would look like this:

And, going for a little more detail, this is how it would break out by age.

I built an interactive visualization of how the Who People Are Messaging chart we were looking at before changes when there aren't so many white people. You can toggle between states and get a sense for yourself.

supposing racial bias:
is like today—the chart will reflect people's current racial messaging preferences
didn't exist—the chart will suppose people are race-blind when deciding who to message
supposing racial composition:
is like today—the chart will reflect the population's current racial composition
is equal—the chart will suppose there are equal numbers of each race
by whites
by asians
by latinos
by blacks
Total area for each group—a measure of their relative popularity:

Here's the by-age analysis for each of the four groups:

Back to reality

"What ifs" are an important part of any researcher's toolkit:

but "what ifs" are only worthwhile if they tell you something relevant in the real world. And here's the value in our thought experiment.

The kind of messaging imbalance that currently exists has observable effects on how people think about race and dating. Search for "interracial couple" on a stock photo site: you'll find a rainbow of Asians, Latinos, Black, and Indians, all hanging out with their white significant others. Or just start typing into Google and see how it completes your sentence:

But as we've seen, in a scenario where people have an equal choice of messaging options, things are very different.

In other words, person for person:

Asians are the most desired racial group in the country.

Then Latinos. Then whites, sort of. As we're seeing it now, the data is being distorted: a huge part of the country is white, and white people mostly like to talk amongst themselves. Intentionally or not, minorities are left out in the cold.

Nonetheless, people prefer their own race

Given equal choice, every race strongly prefers itself:

And white people actually prefer themselves the least, but right now there's just so many of them. It's interesting to think what things would be like if the shoe was on the other foot; if another race outnumbered whites 19:1. We ran a simulation with Asians in whites' role as the dominant group and everyone else was really on the outside looking in then.

You can actually see groups' insularity in real life when you look at cities with larger non-white user bases. Minorities tend to become more and more inward-looking as their numbers increase. The dots on the graph below represent the 150 towns with our largest black populations:

For every 1% increase in the black population, blacks send 2.5% more messages to each other. In Baltimore, for example, 1 in 5 users is black, but half the messages from black people go to other black people. The rate is over twice what you'd expect. Other groups show a similar pattern.

For white people, there are also some places where a relatively smaller population still sends a disproportionately high number of messages to themselves—aka the most racist towns in America. The white people in Greenville, MS, for instance, comprise only 59% of our user base there. However, 95% of their messages go to whites; that's 14× the expected rate.

Cities with the most white-loving white people
#1 Greenville, MS
#2 Jackson, MS
#3 Montgomery, AL
#4 Memphis, TN
#5 Atlanta, GA

The most segregated city north of the Mason-Dixon line is a surprising one: New York. White New Yorkers message other white New Yorkers at about 2× the national rate, probably about Animal Collective.

Soon, there won't be so many white people

Finally, I just want to point out that the hypothetical we chose for our title isn't going to be a hypothetical for much longer. The Census Bureau has concluded that around 2050, whites will no longer be the majority in the U.S.

This is from their website:

Along with this news, I think there's an assumption that at some point all the races will just kind of come together as one, like during Michael Jackson's "Black Or White" video or like during a lawsuit against the estate of Michael Jackson.

The data we're seeing, however, just doesn't support a post-racial future, because even as the races mingle more, people still like to date someone who looks like they do. Asians strongly prefer Asians; Latinos, Latinos, and so on.

Even when white people aren't the majority, society will be as divided as ever.

Endnote: reading level analysis

We analyzed the grade-equivalent reading level of each message in our dataset, and here's a table of how it changes, race to race, message to message.

It seems that generally, people of all races write down to blacks and Latinos and up to Asians and whites. This is a pretty crazy result: proof that race not only affects the quantity of the contacts between people, but the quality as well. For example, the average black person writes at a level almost one full grade-level higher when writing to a white person than when writing to another black person.

292 Responses to “What If There Weren’t So Many White People?”

  1. Possum says:

    “everyone” knows asians are the most racist people in the world, there’s no need for OKC to make up graphs showing it.

    But seriously, until the last couple of generations a large chunk of people were raised to stay within the confines of their culture/race. Those graphs will be completely screwed within the next two generations… except the asians, those racist bastards.

  2. God says:

    First, I have to say thanks to the creators of Ok Cupid for providng a truly FREE site for people of all races, creeds, and colors and persuasions, to have an honest and legitimate vehicle in this “so-called” advanced world of interconnectivity, in which they may find others of similiar rapport to bind and bound in the evolving pursuit of life, love, friendship, companionship, and the otherwise pursuits of happiness, It is a wonderful opportunity to meet, greet, and exchange with others who otherwise we may never have occassion or opportunity to engage and/or to interact. It is a comprehensive site that without pit or snare allows REAL PEOPLE to connect FOR REAL! Secondly, thanks for presenting the discussion in Ok Trends, thanks for even having the balls to open up the dialouge. The findings that you represented are enlightening, impressive and confirming. (It’s almost as if you were reading my mind). When asked what I spend time thinking about? I respond by saying How culturally impotent most people are. How shallow and superficial most people become. How blindly loyal “free-willed” adults are to artificial stereotypes and social-constructs. Love, and friendship has no color. Only ignorance or worst stupidity chooses isolation. Americans’ especially love a good lie. Theirs for the most part is a preference against the truth. It’s the reason why there is even a notion of “race,” because it was created from the falesehood of “white superiority,” which everything in nature, and science, the cosmos and the universe, historically and anthropologically, have proven to contradict. (Just look no further than some of the idiot comments posted in response to such what should have been a thought-provoking review and analysis of the patterns and inclinations that your research revealed). It is no wonder that Blacks were once again, predictably “less regarded, etc” in the eyes of white America (and yes, Latino and Asian America have been breastfed the same distortions and convaluted White superior lies), although they should Know Better…Misery loves company, so they resist Doing Better. It’s kinda funny to me, because there would be no multitudes if it weren’t for a single race…and believe me, I didn’t start this world with Whites. Here’s one I’ll give you for free… MonoCultures cease to exsist. And don’t forget many, many Black Americans have also swallowd the pill of distortion. But when Truth comes, falsehood vanishes, and falsehood is always a vanishing thing. The Wordl Wide Web is a potentially wonderful thing. But as in real life…the internet only mimicks the intelligence of its possesser. If there is none to start with, there will be none reflected. You just don’t have to be face to face with the idiots who embody it. And the beat goes on. And as with most of the wonderful bounties that some hinder others from receiving, their realization of their wasted time, energy, and absence of inclusion will come streaming to them at their appointed time with me…but then it’s a little late. So for the guys and gals at Ok Cupid, keep doing what you’re doing…You’re ok, with me. (Like my humor) And for the REAL People here looking for REAL People too…keep reaching out, or start reaching out. Learn something about someone other than your sorry self. An asshole is an asshole regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation. If you can find someone who you connect with and they can connect with you, you should thank me (and ok cupid) that you were lucky enough to find each other. See ya soon. LMAO

  3. Lysa Pizza says:

    This was interesting to read. But, naturally with anything that I read that has statistical analysis I have specific questions. Anyway, for me, I just prefer to date white guys. I do not know exactly why this is. But even though I prefer to date white guys I still get messages from all races. Now, whether I choose to respond to them does not depend on their race, but more so on what they type when they first message me.

  4. Chris says:

    Interesting article, but describing same-race dating preference as “racist” is rather offensive, and dilutes the true meaning of the word “racist”.

  5. Holly says:

    I think people should love who they feel that emotion towards without the fear of being grouped into a statistic. A big problem with American race relations is the pressure that is applied to perfect it. Because white skin is recessive genetically and interracial marriages are becoming more common, it’s very possible that there will be less white people over time. However, I’m not sure that would change much of anything. A different relation issue could form from an instilled mindset. Any relations that are put under pressure to constantly say and do what the other person/group desires is set up for guaranteed failure. You can’t watch your ass every second AND watch for road signs.
    I wish everyone could see that no matter how “politically correct” it is phrased, it is still a form of prejudice. There should be a point in time where we can see how intolerance has had no benefits and non-violent communication has triumphed.

  6. Keith Cantrell says:

    Scientists have already estimated that at the current rate of intermarriage there won’t be any blacks or whites in about 1000 years. We’ll all be some shade of brown and the concept of “race” will be a thing of the past. That’s evolution.

  7. whozis says:

    Maybe there are fewer Blacks because they are out there livin a “real life” rather than getting too focused on the “cyber-life” – who can feel me?!?

  8. josh says:

    forget white people… wht ifthere werent so manyidiot!! thats the roblem.. andliars

  9. she wolf says:

    THERE ARE LESS WHITE PEOPLE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD AS A WHOLE… MEANING ACROSS THE ENTIRE PLANET… THAN ANY OTHER ETHNICITY. JUST IN COUNTRIES SUCH AS AMERICA AND ENGLAND, SWEDEN ETC… THE MORE ECLECTIC COUNTRIES(ALTHOUGH JAPAN IS PRETTY PROGRESSIVE). BUT MOST OF THE PLANET IS MADE OF THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES, VERY HIGH POPULATIONS AND ALMOST NO WHITE PEOPLE. SO IF THERE WAS LESS WHITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WE WOULD BE AN ENDANGERED RACE! HOWEVER IN THIS COUNTRY WE MIGHT NOT BE A MINORITY…YET. BUT I THINK THIS IS A VERY CULTURALLY DIVERSE COUNTRY, THE ONLY ONE WITH PEOPLE FROM VIRTUALLY EVERY NATIONALITY LIVING IN IT.. SO I THINK WE SHOULDNT COMPLAIN TOO MUCH ABOUT IT.
    HEATHER… I TOTALLY AGREE AND HAVE HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE SO DONT LET THE MEDIA MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY FOR BEING HONEST!!

  10. CN says:

    I’m Asian.

    I propose 3 possibilities why the data suggests Asians are much more likely to message other Asians and shows this statistical significance.

    1. I think it’s entirely possible that the reason Asians prefer to send messages to other Asians is because they may be normally too shy to initiate in real life.

    2. They are looking for the best deal.

    3. They are usually about “saving face” and/or concerned with their image and reputation (fear of rejection or looking inferior).

    Asians are also for the most part, looking for the best deal (ingrained from our GEN-X/Baby Boomer Asian born parents). What better of a way to find a perfect “deal”via online shopping! Also our parents told us to be disciplined, politely agree to disagree during discussions of hot debate around friends, in the workplace, in front of members of the opposite gender, etc. Our parents also want us to find the best possible bargain/deal/engineer or doctor for man/woman who cooks or is dutiful with high virtues and outrageously attractive and homey at the same time/loan %/clearance/discount/amount of free stuff possible. It’s an Asian thing.

    So to sum it up…Asians may prefer online dating over “conventional” ways of meeting and dating people: Bars, random meetups, shared activities, volunteer, work, through friends, etc. because it removes the initial anxiety, gives them a chance to really ensure that their prospect(s) is/are a great “deal” and they can do so discretely >)

  11. davidw says:

    This really flew over everyone’s head. People are way to stupid or don’t have the time for all those graphs and charts. Can you pay me to do this kind of thing? And why, prey tell, did you do it? Are you nuts or something?

  12. Bill says:

    This is rather funny, I’m a black guy and I get most of my responses from white females. Why, because people like people who are interesting, funny and have something to say…regardless of color.

    When I approach someone 80% of the time I get a response back… Am I the exception to the rule??

  13. Dwayne says:

    This did seem a little unnecessary, but I think these things are really informational so I still dig it.

    I’m white, but I don’t see colors I just see people. Facial features are what sell it for me. It may be true that one race would more consistently have facial features that are unappealing to me (Such as, I don’t like big noses), but it would be ignorant to think something like all of one race has big noses.

    A lot of white people suck, but the douche factor is blind to race. There’s just currently more of us here. Asia ftw, yo.

    <–Digs caramel complexion, rawr.

  14. Dan says:

    It would be interesting if there was a regression analysis done for gay men and women.
    Would the result be the same? You would, of course have to account for the ratio of out gay people on here against how many out gay people in each race (difficult because certain races are more difficult to come out to…for instance it might be that there are more out white men v. out black men due to various historical socio-economic issues/factors.

  15. Cory says:

    First off let me say thanks to you guys at Okcupid putting it out there. Surprisingly to me that black females get less responses then females from other ethics groups on certain site maybe. This is the first site I’ve been on and got the responses I have the majority or males white and black not looking for out of state relationship. But lately I’ve been thinking about it. Although I didn’t join a site that limits my choices we’re all here supposedly looking for the same thing that mate that stand out from the rest the that fills a void in our lives and it really shouldn’t matter what color they are but what do we tell each other. The truth is we all have somebody in our families that’s racist but that don’t have to make us racist I can’t afford be racist I have to many different ethnic groups in my blood the one that dominant is my African/Native American heritage, but I also have European, Italian, Cajun and German so hey. When I look at the number of people on the dating site and the messages I get I can’t imagine why we would let something like color interfere in our happiness maybe if we stop looking in the same place for the same difference we’ll find that mate something NEW. I’m not saying I don’t see color because if I did I would either have to be blind or lying it also would mean I don’t acknowledge or respect you as a person an individual. You truly never know where you’ll find truly love open up your heart and see what you find stop looking for the traditional mate your family, and society say is right for you times have changed you looking for love on a dating site. We have enough problems in this world to worry about why worry about the colorof our mates skin just make sureyour open to what you heard and knw about the ethnic group you looseyour heart too. Don’t close your heart and neverhaveachanceatfinding that mate.

  16. Mike says:

    LOL really. This is awesome. Whites work, make money, buy things. When the government starts handing out free computers and internet we will see an increase in blacks/latino. Asians are computers (robots) so they do this stuff by using their huge brain telepathically.

  17. Carlos says:

    If there weren’t so many white people, there’d be another minority race that would be complaining about under-representation. At least interracial relationships aren’t taboo anymore in most places around the US.

  18. wordup says:

    i think this also needs to be divided into genders… i’d like to see if the “yellow fever” thing exists…

  19. Eugene says:

    I think that when you attach a value such as “talking up” or “talking down” to sophistication you are making a serious miscalculation.

    For example, if I say “What do you do?” rather than “What is your occupation?” I may be using a less “sophisticated” sentence with the first example, but I am certainly not talking down to a person, rather it may reflect a certain comfort. I am much more likely to say that to a friend of a friend, or a neighbor, rather than someone I had just met walking down the street.

    To bring that into the context of online dating, it may be just as likely that people are more comfortable talking to those of their same race, rather than to members of a different race. Let me know if you agree or disagree. Email me at ekon25@yahoo.com

  20. ChefMarty says:

    Hey I kind of resent that.. I’m white and I never get any messages from anyone LOL???? I date all races.. Race is unimportant to me just as long as they are honest and nice that’s all what matters really and if you are destined to be together..

  21. Lonkai says:

    Well we also need to factor in some unfortunate historical data causing preference in all races for straight hair and white skin. Those being the sought out theory of beauty. Also the clothing industry to favor less curvy figures as the norm.

  22. Dreadinny says:

    Hmm, maybe they think all of us Black men are criminals. Well it is true, I do steal hearts :)

  23. Andrew says:

    This entry and others have misused tests for measuring the readability of texts. Those tests are based on word and sentence length, and they are meant to convey the level of education necessary to read texts, not to write them, and even then, the tests often fail. Short words and short sentences do not in themselves indicate less educated or lower quality writing, or even less complicated writing, and it’s foolish to treat them as if they do, especially given how small the variations between groups’ scores are. As an example, here’s the first piece of writing that came to mind:

    Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
    As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
    Are melted into air, into thin air:
    And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
    The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
    The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
    Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
    And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
    Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
    As dreams are made on; and our little life
    Is rounded with a sleep.

    The Flesch-Kincaid scores of this comment? Tenth grade for the first paragraph and second grade for Shakespeare.

  24. Rohb says:

    I know for certain that many white women on this site will not consider going out with a Black man. Our current instant friends lifestyle due to the influence of sites like fb, makes it so easy to connect with so many different people, but at the end of the day, because some girl’s dad once chewed her out or worse, for looking at a black boy, they miss out on the opportunity to experience another culture on an intimate level.

    My observation is that Black men are the universal donors when ti comes to races: you see us with EVERY conceivable type of woman. I’m all for that!

  25. BV says:

    I would like to know how exactly “writing sophistication” is measured. Seems like an awfully subjective, ambiguous, and generally inexact enterprise.

  26. Andrew says:

    I for one am white and i prefer asians and blacks. I do like white girls also, however, i believe that love shouldnt be restricted by age[cept by, ya know, huge difference like a 8 year old and 16 year old], distance, or race. love is love, dont let it pass you because of a skin color or different culture

  27. JHamilton says:

    There is more to diversity than race or ethnicity. Someone has too much time on their hands. The word “myopic” comes to mind.

  28. thomas says:

    See this is the problem, we will never get off the issue of racist. Like some posts I seen, this is 2011, only racism you see is, (no offense) but mostly from rednecks and blacks. Also Wilber Forte you just nailed it, older white people are raised in a time that was racist to blacks, but this generation is less so. That’s why you see only few people in areas who are still racist. A lot of kids in school don’t care on color that they are around. A lot of people in war now are also not caring toward what color they are near, and if anything black people are more racist towards white people and probably toward Mexicans too, then white people are toward anyone. Look at little kids, they play together and are raised later into being racist, and I bet it’s mostly because of the schools. We teach about how blacks were slaves and then got free and then the whole equal but different thing. That right there you gather any information you choose from what you read and are told. So no those same kids see how blacks were not treated as good and now the kids (white) remember that and see how whites were treated better and even if you are against how that was, you still hold that information that whites were higher than blacks. What would happen if for 1 generation maybe 2 you removed anything from all history books in all grades having anything to do with things like black history month or slavery or anything that can tie to blacks have been treated lower than whites. Also i agree with this other race gets special treatment, that right there is having the government be racist. But really people this also isnt the only problem in this country and alot of other places, women also dont get picked for jobs if male who has same thing basicly all equal except male and female and guy wins over the girl. Also with blacks, its not a racist thing all the way, its an outlook type thing, a black grown male adult with a college degree, family and well paying job who never reverse to other black males as “nigga” will in fact have more respect and seen better then the average rap artist type look who always is saying nigga. That right there is a respect toward how you present yourself. I can say alot more but this is too long as it is.

  29. Rachel says:

    The only people who say race doesn’t exist are white people.

    I don’t even like using the term race to refer to skin color, because it’s not technically correct. There is only one race – human. We’re different colors due to what coloring was most beneficial for our and/or our ancestors’ regional locations. Native Europeans are light skinned because it better absorbs Vitamin D in an area where there is less sun exposure. Black people are dark because Africa is exposed to a lot of sun. But there are no major biological differences between that can legitimately classify every different skin tone as a separate race.

    But in the popular usage of the term “race” among regular society, which is in regard to skin color, my original comment still stands. You don’t see it because you don’t have to. But to attempt to deny differences is not only ridiculous and impossible, but ill-advised. I am constantly aware of people’s skin color because I’ve constantly been looking for a place to fit in my entire life, as I am biracial. And people tend to congregate with those of their own race, or those close to their ethnicities. I span the spectrum, so I’ve always felt like I stuck out, and for that reason, race has always been part of my consciousness. Always. There was the group of black kids and white kids and Asian kids in high school, but there was never a group of biracial kids, because that kind of thing just doesn’t exist. We just have to attempt to blend in somewhere.

    Also, this has nothing to do with what I was saying, but I tend to message more light-skinned guys, either white or Latino/Hispanic/Spanish/Mexican/whatever, because that’s just my preference…

  30. crm_114 says:

    So, in contradiction to your earlier post, white people are actually the least racist.

  31. Maynard Handley says:

    “people still like to date someone who looks like they do.”

    I would be very interested (assuming you could figure out a way to test this) whether this is true. I would have thought that, for most people nowadays, the relevant variable is culture rather than “skin color”.

    I would assume that most people feel most comfortable with their culture (which means a whole constellation of things — food, the way people treat each other, preferred entertainment, shared references, etc etc). Then, depending on tastes, some might want to try meeting someone from a basically similar cultural background, or from a drastically different background.

    Perhaps one way of approaching this is to try to segregate whites (this might be easy) and other groups (might be more difficult because of smaller numbers) via some sort of cluster analysis based on cultural markers, and applying this same sort of analysis to those clusters.

    Thinking of whites for example, obvious subcultures that spring to mind are “urban professional”, “urban working class” and “southern redneck”. I could imagine, for example, “urban professional” as feeling that it had more in common with Asians than with “southern redneck”, and that perhaps “urban working class” felt the group it had the most in common with is Black.

  32. Year 2000 says:

    What if people did not eat slaughtered animals?

  33. oscar says:

    I would like to see this data joined with OKC’s little hotness ranking system. Then we could get our first glimpse at why these racial preferences exist. Are users messaging the same people they (or others) rank highly in the beauty contest; do beauty rankings of and by race break down along the same lines as email numbers?

  34. drc says:

    1. You know you live in a racial and gendered society when everyone seems to find it necessary to start off any point they make with “as a [race] [gender]”

    2. The fact that some white people may find the title problematic should not be surprising–being a member of a majority group does not mean that you don’t have the right to be offended.

    3. For the people still making comments along the lines of : “[racial group A] is less attractive, civilized, sophisticated, etc., than [racial group B]” –you should really stop. This is morally wrong and makes no sense. If you really believe this claptrap, then a statistics course could help you with part of your problem. Also a hug wouldn’t hurt. Preferably from a member of an inferior racial group.

    4. Finally, claiming that you PREFER one racial group over another is kind of the definition of racism. Of course, this does not mean you are prejudiced but it probably does. It is precisely the recourse to the seemingly objective–”its biological” or “its just what i am naturally attracted to”–that keeps us from honest reflection about how race plays a role in our lives.

  35. Chris says:

    Soon whites will be a minority, IN A COUNTRY OUR PEOPLE FOUNDED. Are you blind anti-whites convinced enough that WE NEED OUR OWN RACIAL INTEREST GROUPS? We need them now. Similar to the NAACP and ADL which promotes black and jewish interests respectively, we are in dire need of a white/European American version. Your children and grandchildren are at stake.

  36. Gender Curious says:

    Yes, please, Gender breakdown ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  37. mostly says:

    I would also like to say that for some it may be a race thing. Those people who are still living in the mindset of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. But I think for those of us who grew up with other races (as todays kids do in many areas) it’s not about skin color at all.

    I have seen some knockout gorgeous African American women who are as dark as night. What made them beautiful was not about the shade of their skin. It had absolutely nothing to do with that, It was all about their features. Eye, nose, lips, cheek bones, chin, forehead, whether or not they were heavy or scrawny.

    In the same manner I have seen some really ugly white women. Being white didn’t help them to be beautiful.

    It’s all about features and attraction. I really hate to generalize, but I am white and personally I am more attracted to Indians, and Latinas more than white girls. Not because of their skin color but because of their features.

    I say to each their own.

  38. Steve says:

    I definitely get mail from a lot more black girls than white girls. The jungle just has a fever for me.

  39. really? says:

    Stereotypes are generally true, except the obviously hurtful only ones. They are generalizations that lead to better guesses typically based on small sample size or hearsay. If a person eats a red berry and they die…it could be the berry or the person being allergic. It 2 people die out 3 then perhaps best to avoid them.

    Look at FICO scores…they are statistical stereotypes. People who have high scores are generally less risky. People who are typically late with payments have low FICO scores. Not all low FICO score people will default but on average a higher percentage than higher FICO score people. It is a stereotype that pretty much runs our financial life.

  40. Greg says:

    reading through a lot of these comments I see a lot of people tossing around the expression “does not mean I’m a racist”. I don’t think the intention of this article was to call anyone a racist, It just points out that, give equal opportunities (in dating “pool” size), most people would choose someone of their own race. Nothing about being racist for it.

  41. Anonymous says:

    Wow there are lots of white people on a website hosted in America? Who fucking knew?

  42. Cocoa410 says:

    I am a black female. I have been on okcupid for 5 years now and I have dated many men from different races :) [currently going through a south asian kick...nice]

    Funny thing is most of them tell me I must be receiving a lot of messages since I’m so “beautiful”. They are usually surprised when I tell them “no more than average”. This article, like many before it confirms that…. it makes me sad.

    …Although I am from Toronto so I guess I’ve been somewhat sheltered from this “problem” as interracial dating is just like regular dating lol

    The effort (sophistication and length) put into my messages are based on the sender initial message and their profile. Considering you don’t want to overwhelm the person you’re communicating with and you also don’t want to give the impression you don’t care.

    I’m not sure why people are so offended by this article…though I only have my perspective to rely on. Like other commenters have said dating within your own race does NOT make you racist. (ie. Jerry Springers episodes about people hating their own race and uncle ruckus from Boondocks [probably not the best examples]).

    lastly, I LIKE Battlestar Galactica and other sci-fi shows…so stfu Chris!

    Cheers!

  43. Lois says:

    I’ve lived in central California most of my life, and white folks have not been a majority here for thirty years or so. And it is not only white people who cling together and almost avoid other races, it’s all of the races. Go to any high school or junior high campus, and you’ll see knots of color. Not mingling. I don’t know how long it will take until we just trust one another, or how long it will take until the poverty line is what delineates social groups. I’ve had plenty of black people look right through me, even ignore me when I spoke to them. My poor yellow-haired children were outcasts in their schools for the most part, and my two oldest dropped out of high school because they got tired of being in fear of the racially biased kids there. One of my best friends as a child was a lovely black girl. Her mother would not let us be friends because she said there was no future in it. What on earth kind of attitude is that?

  44. Ahmed says:

    I agree with the statistics. It’s clearly a product of environmental brainwashing. We grew up watching television, which portrays a predominately white demograph. Naturally we are inclined to find white people more attractive. Only as of the past 25-30 years has there been a media shift in white dominance. However, even that shift has been slow and is slight. Either way, in the end….looks/race/ethnicity only serve as a means to attraction….personality and character in the end trumps all….except maybe casual sex.

  45. Concern4whitegirls says:

    Why does some white girl go….? Oh race doesn’t matter, why do people care and make a big deal out of it? Then she goes on to say…. but as I white girl, I like black men.

    I think it’s annoying that black men walk around hitting on every single women that walks by them, and are usually very rude and come on strong.

    And whether the white girl wants him to or not, she acts all open about it. But if a white man hit on her the same way she acts like a bitch and is damn near to file sexual harassment charges.

    Everyone is trying to bruise the whites to make them equal in color. Even the whites talk down on themselves.

    White people have to realize that they are a strong race, many blacks in America were the ancestors of slaves, so I think evolution has resulted in a lot of them being able to become atheletes.

    I just think these types of white women make the white race weaker, and our race is the most abused.

  46. Luis says:

    When reading an article that is aggregating data from 83 million messages, you’re not going to be able to refute it by saying “well, I’m not that way!” That’s anecdotal evidence, that’s not a statistic.

    In fact, ou probably are that way, to an extent, and don’t realize it. Most of these trends are subtle and start to pile up when you have very large data sets.

    If you want to prove them wrong, take a statistics class and start finding a way to poll a few million people. Good luck.

  47. xTWx says:

    I love how so many people got angry at the idea that there are still different races and that OKCupid saw fit to do a study regarding how they interact. Apparently they don’t realize that’s what a fair portion of America’s tax dollars pay for EVERY year (for those of us who have a job anyways). Additionally, the study was completely objective and in no way puts down one race or another (although it does incorporate a little sly humor, but that’s why OKC rocks). If you can’t appreciate the study for exactly what it is, go soak your head.

    P.S. That slidey graph thing is the shit.

  48. Luis says:

    @KR “In Europe, black people, brown people and white people all live in the same neighborhoods and they speak the same way.”

    Are you !@#$ing kidding me? Yeah, you can see that in Montclair, New Jersey. You clearly were hanging out in very specific places. Europe has just as many racial problems as the US. Like the rampant employment discrimination in France, or Spaniards throwing banana peals on the field to make fun of black players.

    You have no idea what you’re talking about. Keep your dumb ass vacation stories to yourself.

  49. StrikeField says:

    Is it me or does OK always glorify white males? I swear the white guys in my town are pot heads living in their moms basement playing yuigoh. Anyway there is only one race and its human.

  50. Mike says:

    interesting article, but why no gender breakdown?