A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships reviewed racial online dating preferences and found some surprising (and disheartening) results. After surveying approximately one thousand individuals across the nation using stratified sampling from and a major internet personal site (no, not ours) the study found:

• Gender is an important factor in interracial dating, with males in general being more willing than females to date outside their race
• Hispanic Americans are more willing to date outside of their race than any other racial group
• City, age, and income are relatively unimportant factors in interracial dating
• Higher education was NOT an indicator of increased willingness to date outside of one’s race. It was speculated that those with higher education were more likely to indicate racial tolerance, but were less likely to act on it in a real-world dating scenario
• Conservatives are racially selective, and are least likely to date outside their race
• For the highly religious, dating that eliminates anyone outside of their race is more the norm than for the political conservatives

Is this a question of racism or lack of opportunity? The researcher controlled for city size and region, and it’s possible that those in small cities may be just as likely to try interracial dating as those in large cities but suffer from a lack of diversity. But it’s still unsettling to see old stereotypes emerge even in new and more diverse dating mediums.

Further Reading:

Yancey, G. (2007). Homogamy over the net: Using internet advertisements to discover who interracially dates. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 24, 913-930.