It's been a few weeks, but I thought I would point you to an interesting post on OkCupid's blog about race and dating. They report an interesting trend of preference for white men among all groups of females, as well as lots of other interesting nuggets. Of course, as many have noted the core demographic of OkCupid is a bit different than the general population, and might be especially so when it comes to racial minorities. I did think though that the stated racial preferences of the sample are interesting in light of other data which suggest women are more racialist than men.
In all classes women have stronger same-race preferences than men, except for among Asian women. In previous speed dating studies Asian women were exceptional for showing little racial solidarity with Asian men, so this follows intuition. Also, there is a healthy surplus of males on these dating sites. That might naturally modulate their stated preferences a bit in relation to women.
I am a little bemused by the OkCupid blogger's outrage at these data. This sort of bias isn't surprising at all from what I have heard (if you're a colored guy who swaps out your image with a white guy and leaves everything else the same in the biography and preferences, you're in for a sweet surprise which you'll never be able to follow up on). Next: OkCupid data shows that nerdier men get fewer responses!
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I know I should probably RTFA, but, do these measurements take place in "white countries"? (I.e., are they asking people of East Asian descent who live in and grew up in countries where whites are the majority.)
Because if they are, I'd be curious to see if you still see these same kind of preferences if you went to say, China or Japan. (I.e., are East Asians that grow up in and still live in "East Asian countries" still so willing to "mix". Or do they become less willing to "mix" because they are the majority population.)
Perhaps when you look across the world, whatever group is the majority population has a tendency to not want to "mix" as much (relative to minority groups).
To Charles Iliya Krempeaux,
This study was done in the U.S however to use another example it is interesting to note among expats that Asia is referred to as the White mans playground and the White womans hell.
Especially East Asia, White men basically have a field day while White women tend to be resentful because the White men have more options dating the Asian ladies while they don't want to date the Asian boys.
There is plenty of information on this topic out there. I read an article written by a White woman about China being a dating wasteland, just google that and it will lead to the countless amount of info regarding the topic.
Ed, you got it. In Japan, at least. Black and Middle Eastern men are also quite popular with Japanese women. White women who are willing to consider Asian men had no problems finding men, but of my acquaintance many white women were simply unwilling.
(But if I were an Asian man, why would I want a loud, fat woman when I was surrounded by slim, cute girls all the time?)
Pity the Black women in Japan. They didn't like the Asian men and the men didn't like them. I knew only one black woman married to a Japanese, and she was Dominican.
Charles, while this doesn't exactly answer your question regarding dating preferences, the data does show that when east asians are in the majority, they tend to avoid interracial marriage.
http://books.google.com/books?id=SApUzNYcAXEC&printsec=frontcover&sourc…
Scroll down to page 105 on the preview for the interracial marriage data section. The data is a little out of date being from 1997, but it should serve. For the dominant Chinese ethnicity, the interracial marriage rates are 3.5% for men and 3.4% for women.
Ed, women's sexual market value is portable, their beauty goes with them where ever they go. For a man it is different. In men, women seeks markers of social proof, status, "Game" as it were according to Roissy. For a white woman in East Asia, or really anywhere other than the developed West, finding a local husband will be incredibly rare. White men on the other hand have a much easier time abroad because their skin serves as a mark of social status (legacy of colonialism and imperialism in all that). The only places where this is not true is where the overarching society at large exercises extreme control over female sexuality, i.e. Islamic states in the Middle East and India as well. There are varying degrees of Patriarchy. Chinese parents might not express approval of their daughters marrying white foreigners, but they won't necessarily do anything to forestall it. From many in Indian and Arab communities, you can expect de facto excommunications from families at best to, gather the cousins, it's time to restore the family Izzat by any means necessary at worst.