Race and Attraction, 2009 – 2014

September 10th, 2014 by Christian Rudder

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:

men
– 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.

2009
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.

 I learned this from the work of Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a researcher at Google.

. . .

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.

161 Responses to “Race and Attraction, 2009 – 2014”

  1. Pingback: Lessons Learned from Online Dating: We're All Awful — Sexy Lover Search

  2. Asian Man says:

    All I can say is, I’m surprised Asian men in the US still exist.

  3. chantall says:

    -_- i get alot of guys and im a black women…and from all races
    If your hot your hot…silly study and im missing the point what is the meaning of this study anyway?

  4. Pingback: Lessons Learned from Online Dating: We’re All Awful | BlindDating.co.uk

  5. StavrosGoldenDawn says:

    Firstly, I must say that Whites who are financially well off and physically attractive are much much much less likely to engage in race mixing. Whites who are physically unattractive and who occupy the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder are much much much more likely to engage in race-mixing. And, if you doubt that, go to your local Walmart and check out all the 250lb+ White heffers waddling down the aisles with their ugly, nappy-headed mixed race offspring in tow.

    Race mixing is NOT natural, and beyond that it is evil and ugly beyond words. But going forward you will see that race mixing become much less frequent.

  6. DC says:

    I mean, what can I say, speaking as an Ivy-educated Asian male, despite all our economic and educational success, it’s an embarrassment to our race and community. And it’s not any other race’s fault but our own, the Asians have willingly allowed themselves to be divided by the race-baiting western media, which denigrates all minorities (Hispanics are poor, illegal blue-collar workers, Blacks are violent hoodlums, Asians are effeminate nerds without social skills), while somehow also managing to pit all the minorities against each other in order to keep everyone under control. Although these racist views from the media are dictated by only a small number of influential old white men from “the good old days”, these biased views easily filter out into the general public, since people are forced into consuming the biased media. Frankly, I still find it astounding that since every year prior to 2014, Asian women actually rated white men higher than Asian men, and this year white men even rated Asian women higher than white women, while of course conversely white women rated Asian men negatively. Frankly, I am disgusted to be living in this country and will gladly move back to Asia at my earliest convenience. After all, you also want me to “go back to China”, don’t you? Well, good riddance, because I am dying to be rid of this mess of a country.

  7. CC says:

    The only suggestion I would add would be taking account socioeconomic factors. As for the results, it’s all about what you’ve been comfortable with. That relates to who/where/with what you grew up with. I grew up in Western PA and Western MD. Both very rural and very white. So not surprisingly, the girls I thought were cute were as well. I came to NYC, that changed (by HS, I was into all types of girls), and by law school I didn’t care but my preferences sharpened. The common thread in those situations was my familiarity determined my attraction.

    I also noticed some things. In NYC, a supposed mecca of liberalism and tolerance, the idea of interracial dating was a notion you only saw on TV (it’s still a very segregated city). I now live in Michigan, and for the most part (esp once you get out of Detroit area), it’s not that big of a deal. Even in the “boonies”, people of different races hook up date and marry, not because they’re being “revolutionary” but because they share the same culture – familiarity.

    My thing is that you associate with things that you are familiar with. It applies to everything. Any bias in hiring, renting/selling residences, school admissions, etc. comes back to that. It may suck because it screws entire populations that’s what laws are for. But just like poverty, and religious preference, you will never eradicate the preference for the familiar – something which is hard-wired into everyone. This should be no different when it comes to attraction, dating, and marriage and procreation, which (contrary to the thinking that is “en vogue”), are all related. You’ll have to live with that person for the rest of your life – he/she better be compatible.

    I could “hook up” with a girl from any background, but there are those whom I will never date. I will never date a Jewish woman. Not because I hate Jews (my best friend is Jewish and he understands why I don’t), but experience has taught me that it’s not feasible to expect her to shun her family. The same goes for someone who’s Muslim, a Buddhist, atheist, Satanist, etc.. I would also never date someone who’s politically liberal – as she would be diametrically opposed to my worldview. I don’t date many African American women because while superficially I’m perfect on their eyes, in reality I’m not (culturally and politically – I’m a conservative Republican which most of them despise) Do those things make me bigoted? I guess but that’s my preference. Does a racial preference make someone racist? I guess. It doesn’t matter. Racism only matters when it prevents others from succeeding in moving up the social ladder. Last time I checked, being refused by a man/woman doesn’t count.

    Also, this is America. We can all dream about how this country has changed but anyone who is surprised/bemoaning the image that the white male is the “standard” is deluding themselves. This is a society which was based on European standards with additional influences from all over the world. You can call a brick house a “chateau” but it’s still a house – made of bricks.

  8. LOL says:

    @young miss wong:

    dearest madam wong, you’ve clearly indicated that beneath your criminally psychopathy that you do not have two brain cells to rub together in which to start a brush fire. which would be a shame if it were not so laughably pathetic since it reveals your deep-seated racist hatred and unenlightened underdeveloped brain. yet this is understandable since it is prevalent in patients with profound brain damage & chemical imbalance.

    until you find treatment to deal with your permanent debilitation, i suggest you stick with something you know, such as cleaning your toothbrush, and leave discussions to those who matter & are part of the human race.

    good luck with your dumpster diving, and have fun explaining to the authorities what you did with the bodies.

  9. StavrosGoldenDawn says:

    The filth and evil of diversity was forced upon Whites, all over the western world by an evil, genocidal anti-White political elite! Non-Whites should thank their lucky stars that to this point we have even been tolerant of them. That tolerance is coming to an end and non-Whites need to get it through their thick skulls that we White human beings are under no obligation to find them attractive. And we are certainly under no obligation to marry, procreate with them and produce ugly mixed race offsrping!

  10. LOL says:

    @miss stavros:

    …and you my dear, will also have to learn that in cases like yours, there are several options in which to deal with your particular condition… such as lobotomies & executions since that’s the only reasonable & humane response to such wickedness & criminality.

    BUT… if you do not wish to be prosecuted, processed & institutionalized since you are dangerous to yourself, others & society for being psychotically unlawful as well as just downright mean, you are perfectly free to go to some 3rd world banana dictatorship where insanely evil behavior such as yours is more commonplace… such as Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, etc.

    …places like that are full of weirdo’s just identical to yourself that you will feel right at home with.

  11. Pingback: Pew Research Study Shows What Unmarried Women Value Most in Potential Spouses | NextShark