Familiarity between Hookup Partners as a Measure of Race Based Social Distance

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. RGC and Demography

Abstract

Rates of interracial relationships have historically been used as measure of social distance between racial and ethnic groups. However, research has not fully incorporated hookups, which are non-committal sexual unions that include activities ranging from kissing to intercourse. Particularly lacking is an understanding of how interracial and same-race hookups differ with regards to familiarity between partners, which may more accurately capture closeness and better explain whether there is continued interaction. Using survey data from the Online College Social Life Survey (n=11,688) and interviews with undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania (n=22), I explore how familiar students are with partners of a different race compared to same-race partners? Furthermore, are levels of familiarity similar across all interracial hookups? I find that interracial partners report less familiarity, which is driven by differences between interracial and same-race hookups reported by Black students. I identify how familiarity is influenced by where partners meet, negative stereotypes, and the number of times partners have previously hooked up.

Author

• Sarah Spell, University of Pennsylvania