Racial bias in U.S. whites’ online dating choices: Evidence from a nationally representative conjoint experiment

• In Event: 30420 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Race, Dating, Intimacies

Abstract

This study investigates US heterosexual white adults’ racial bias in partner selection patterns on online dating platforms using a nationally representative survey experiment. Research on online dating has found that online dating services’ suggestion algorithms present racially-biased matches to users based on their past selections, and that white users particularly make less racially egalitarian selections than non-white users. However, it is less clear whether white users of online dating services would make more egalitarian partner selections if their match suggestions were truly randomized, and if other characteristics beyond race are more important in their selection process. Moreover, when white users have multiple matches to choose from, are they more likely to choose white partners over non-white partners? This study attempts to provide clarity to these gaps using an online survey with a conjoint experiment embedded that presented US white adult participants with an online dating scenario. Participants chose between 2 potential romantic partners an online dating service had matched them with based on comparable attributes between potential partners (e.g., race, age, political party). The results from this experiment suggest that, net of other partner attributes presented to participants, the potential partner’s race was the strongest predictor of being chosen as a romantic partner to pursue, and that participants were much more likely to choose white partners over non-white ones. There are also slight sex differences, with men being slightly more egalitarian in their selection of Black and Asian women, and women being more egalitarian in their selection of Hispanic men. Overall, these results have implications for the importance of online dating as a social platform that profoundly influences the landscape of romantic relationship formation in the United States today.

Author

• Dylan A Simburger, Rice University