By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album
Reviewed by Donna Davis, PhD, University of Oregon, Portland School of Journalism and Communication
If you’ve ventured into the world of online dating sites, then you know that they offer a dizzying array of possibilities. As users make decisions about whom to contact and respond to, they might consider someone’s interests, age, background, and–let’s face it–that all-important profile photo. But what about race? How does that play in?
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked more closely at the question of race in online dating. Using anonymous data from more than 100,000 users of a popular Internet matchmaking site, researchers found that in general, users tended to reach out mostly to those of their own race.
However, when it came to replying to messages, things got a little more interesting. It seems that when a person of a different race makes the first move, online daters are actually quite likely to respond to that contact.
What’s more, daters who had been contacted by a person of another race then seemed to become more open to interracial dating in general. For a short time afterwards, they actually became more likely both to make contact and to respond to people of another race.
The author suggests that many daters may start off feeling hesitant to contact those from another race, perhaps because they think their overtures won’t be successful. However, after experiencing romantic interest from a person of a different race, they may become a bit more open and optimistic, at least for a while.
In a world where online dating plays an important role in helping people find partners, this might just be pretty significant. Research shows that one-third of American married couples who wed after 2005 first met on the Internet, and these percentages seem likely to continue to increase. Experiences with being contacted by those from other racial backgrounds online could help people to see the dating world as a broader one. They might also change a few attitudes along the way.
(Photo credit: Will you be my Valentine? by Felix Francis. CC BY 2.0.)
References:
Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., Gonzaga, G. C., Ogburn, E. L., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2013). Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222447110
Lewis, K. (2013). The limits of racial prejudice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(47), 18814-188819. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1308501110
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