A study from Cornell University found that dating apps — like Tinder and Grindr — can help reinforce the biases or “sexual racism” of users depending on its algorithm. The researchers offered ways to fight back against it.
Dating applications can allow users to fall into their own racial biases while searching for a partner, a new study says.
But in their study, researchers from schools like Cornell University say the “sexual racism” that plagues apps like Grindr, Tinder and Bumble can be stamped out with a few simple changes. The end goal, the study says, is to promote more diverse pairings on the dating sites.
Jevan Hutson, lead author of the study, said in a press release from Cornell University that “it’s really an unprecedented time for dating and meeting online” — which requires a more thorough look at how we can prevent discrimination on these dating apps.
“More people are using these apps, and they’re critical infrastructures that don’t get a lot of attention when it comes to bias and discrimination,” he said in the press release. “Intimacy is very private, and rightly so, but our private lives have impacts on larger socioeconomic patterns that are systemic.”
So just how does this racial bias play out for the estimated 15 percent of adults who use the dating apps?
Take the case of Sinakhone Keodara for example. He threatened to sue Grindr, a dating app for gay, bi and trans men, because of “sexual racism” he faced on the site, NBC reported. More specifically, Keodara says some users on the site had captions like “Not interested in Asians.”
Phumlani Kango, from Johannesburg, South Africa, said in an interview with NBC that the racism is prevalent in his country, too.
“What happens in Los Angeles … where you have ‘no fats, no femmes,’ it happens [in South Africa] as well,” he told NBC. “… They will say ‘no rice, no chocolate, no curry’ — which means no Asian, no black and no Indian.”
As noted by the study — which compiled data from prior research — white people are ten times more likely to receive a message from a black person on a dating app than they are to message the black user themselves. That suggests a hierarchy of attention on racial lines.
The study found other examples of inequalty in dating apps, including:
- Asian men and black women have the lowest chance of receiving a message or a response.
- White people of “all ages” prefer to go on dates with other white people.
- College students are most likely to avoid going on dates with black women.
Stephanie Yeboah, a blogger, said that she has experienced racism as a black woman on online dating apps even when people are open to meeting up, according to The Independent. She said that some people ask offensive questions like if they can “get a taste of jungle fever” — and say they want to see if black women are “as aggressive in bed as they’ve heard.”
“Comments such as these are extremely dehumanizing to myself and other black women who are only looking for companionship,” she told The Independent. “It seems to suggest that black women are only good for one thing, and cites back to previous ideologies of black people being compared to primates; as primal and feral, hyper-sexualized creatures. It’s very hurtful.”
Even Christian Rudder, founder of OK Cupid, said that “when you’re looking at how two American strangers behave in a romantic context, race is the ultimate confounding factor.”
But researchers behind the Cornell University study say they have some ways to push back against the racial biases of users.
The study’s authors noted that OK Cupid itself experimented with pairing up users and saying they were “highly compatible” — even though they weren’t considered good matches — and found that the conversation between the two people often went well.
In other words, it appeared that just the mere suggestion that two people were compatible made both users more likely to give the connection a chance. The study’s authors wrote in a press release that it proves “the strong power of suggestion” that can be used to bridge the gap between people of different races.
Another potential solution could come from 9Monsters, a gay dating app from Japan, that allows people to describe themselves without explicitly revealing their race, according to the study’s authors.
The app “groups every user into one of nine categories of fictional ‘monster’ according to a process that includes both the user’s own type preference and the community’s perception of them,” the study says. “While 9Monsters may still sort users into categories along established lines like body type or weight, it’s possible that this re-categorization may also help users look past other forms of difference, such as race, ethnicity, and ability.”
And a final solution might come in the form of “Kindr,” a campaign from Grindr that seeks to stamp out prejudice on its app by promoting inclusion. The study’s authors said positive writing about diversity may help promote more diverse couples on the apps.
The new guidelines from Kindr, for example, suggest that users describe “what you’re into, not what you aren’t” to avoid offending others.
“These guidelines exist to let you express yourself freely while also helping us maintain the safe, authentic, and accepting environment we strive to cultivate,” the guidelines read. “Any violation of these guidelines may result in the removal of prohibited content or a permanent ban from Grindr.”
But Landen Zumwalt, head of communications at Grindr, cautioned against hoping for a cure-all solution.
“Over the years I’ve had some pretty harrowing experiences,” Keodara told The Guardian. “You run across these profiles that say ‘no Asians’ or ‘I’m not attracted to Asians’. Seeing that all the time is grating; it affects your self-esteem.”
I am shocked to find out there may still be racism in South Africa. I won’t date an Asian guy that wants me to play with his pee pee, I am just racist like that.
I’m attracted to all American conservative patriotic women who love God, Guns, and Guts; and I don’t care if they are red, white, or blue…
My subconscious racism forced me to attracted to a hot little redhead and marry her 26 years ago.
I should sue myself for being so discriminatory.
“Sue”?
That is sexist!
I prefer to date white women. Sue me.
Well, what happens when we run into space aliens and some Earth human decides he wants that chicklet from Gilbehrtius IIIa instead of a human, because she’s triple jointed, but she doesn’t want the human because HAIR – EEEWWWW ?
Is that blatant speciesism, or what?
Would he be a Nair do well?
GROAN!!!!!!
Do you include butter with your puns?
Butter your buns, now you are getting kinky.
Ok, I’ll consider translucent alien females with two heads but they must have nice hair. No redheads. Unless the other one is blonde.
Someone’s been playing “Mass Effect…”
I don’t know squat about these dating sites. My wife won’t allow me to date other women. She’s rather firm on that issue. We have had an agreement since soon after we married. If one or the other cheats, the cheater is to phone it in because if it’s confessed in person, the cheater is dead.
Lady shooter, hands fiancée a pair of 12 gage buckshot shells.
“You won’t stray, because you will always keep in mind that buckshot is -much- cheaper than divorce lawyers…”
Ouch.
Truth in advertising:
“Will screw women of any race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.”
But that is gender discrimination. One should be open to trying the infamous crime against nature, as they used to call it in The Old Bailey.
The Libtard SJWs are still at it, trying to mold people into their Utopian ideals.
The libs have stated their goal of making all mankind brown by mixing everybody. The fools think that somehow will make all our problems go away.
They don’t understand human nature.
I can’t even begin to imagine the level of racism that the last pockets of non-taupe peoples will receive.
“Those guys must be super-racist–just look at them! It’s in their blood, and all over their skin. Taupe-power! Taupe-power!”
Seems to be a gross overstatement of a basic fact – people tend to be more compatible with folks with similar experiences and backgrounds, and tend to seek that common ground. That’s not racist, it’s just human nature.
Grandma called it birds of a feather flocking together. That’s fLOcking.
Per Stephanie Yeboah, the implication is that ‘black women are only good for one thing’.
Well, that’s really not true. Looking at it from the straight male perspective, men mostly want to know if you can cook AND do the other thing. The rest is just window dressing, and no, generally speaking, the majority of straight men don’t give a crap about your opinions or whether or not you’re a brilliant conversationalist, until AFTER you’ve persuaded them that you’re the
best choice of the herd.
Nice dream world you live in, Steph. Good luck with that. These dorkwads wound my ego all the time. The crap I put up with just to make them treat me like a human is sinfully laughable.
Grow up, Steph. It is what it is. The only way you can get a man to worship you like the goddess you think you are is to invite him over for dinner and impress him with your skills with pots, pans and whisks. But you should also know how to rewire a lamp, change a tire and look helpless while you’re at it, fold laundry, replace missing shirt buttons, housebreak the dog and the kids, and still have money left over at month end in the household budget. You have to convince him that he can’t live without you and your skills.
(If you dog breaths take that seriously, I have a map of Captain Kidd’s treasure location to sell you.)
Red beans and rice w/sausage, anyone?
“Red beans and rice w/sausage, anyone?”
IS there sweet cornbread to go with that?
Sweet cornbread? I find that the scratch recipe tends to be too sweet for me. I prefer the more savory flavor, but I will have a look at various cornbread recipes and see what I can find.
-sweet- cornbread?
…
Said my grandmother,
“Bless your heart, it’s -bread-, not -cake-.”
I think I may have found the solution to your inquiry, Chief. Most recipes call for 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar.
This one from the Food Kitchen tells you to bump up the sugar to 3/4 cup, and add vanilla and honey to the batter. Give it a shot and if it isn’t sweet enough, increase the amounts until the sweetness level meets your requirement.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/sweet-cornbread-3565435
You might try putting tooth pick size holes all around the top of the cornbread when it comes out of the oven and then drizzle the vanilla/honey mixture over the top, similar to the method for bundt cakes with rum.
Hmm, make that melted butter, vanilla and honey and even I might try it.
Add just a hint of spiced rum to it, too. Oh, yeah!!!
I date white women and I can only understand them 5% of the time, on a good day. And I mean that literally. I say “huh?” a lot. I’d have no problem dating outside my race if there was closed captioning. I wonder if I could demand accommodation?
I often tell my kids that when Mommy stops speaking English, it’s time to stop doing whatever it is you’re doing that she doesn’t like. A lesson I learned the hard way…
So we choose to be with people similar to ourselves, with some exceptions. How much money was spent on this ‘study’? They could have given $50 to anyone with the IQ of a rock and come up with similar results. I’ll guarantee this was a gummermint funded study. So the intent is to mold people into something they are not and if we don’t have diversity in our potential mate choice that somehow makes us racist and bad people.
Prior to marriage I dated white women with one exception. I once dated a black girl. There was no particular reason for this; she was pretty and we got along so we went out a few times. I didn’t date her to prove I was not a racist or whatever. We parted on good terms. Neither of us defined the other as racist or any other bullshit title. I don’t give two fucks what the study determined. Men and women, people, will date who the fuck they want to date. What if we don’t? Is there going to be a restriction on who we can date? I swear, the left wing whackos are going to ruin this country with their micro management of the lives of people. I give up.
Awaiting IDC-SARCs take on this.
I suspect it will come out something like “it’s all pink”
Don’t look at me, this Black Irish white boy has been exclusively committed to a beautiful southeast Asian female for the better part of the last decade. A conservative, gun-owning, church-going, redneck-by-choice, All-American (albeit naturalized) southeast Asian female, to whom I will remain exclusively committed (and married) for the remainder of my existence.
My prior relationships were with hispanic and white chicks. Why no black ex-girlfriends? Because none were ever interested in me. My “type” is female, I have no racial/ethnic preference. Some people do, I don’t. Even if you do, is that really racist? How about a white chick that prefers exclusively black dudes, or a black guy who likes Asian girls? I don’t hear a whole lot of complaints about that. The majority of people on Earth will naturally gravitate towards their own race/ethnicity. That’s just human nature. Interracial relationships are, for whatever reason, less common than intraracial ones. And even among those, interracial hookups seem to be more common than committed relationships. Why is that? I don’t know. Like I said, I’m one of those unusual people who lack a racial preference, conscious or otherwise. When boys start showing up to take my daughters out, I won’t particularly care what color those little bastards are. All will receive the Fear of God and me equally.
As for the “dehumanizing” complaints, so you’re telling me that two apps that very specifically cater to one-night-stand hookups (one gay, the other straight) have users making douchey objectifying comments about others? Yeah, that’s about as shocking as water being wet.
“For example, black men and women are 10 times more likely to message whites than white people are to message black people.”
That’s easy to figure out. The black guys want fat white women with stringy and dirty hair and the black women want dependable white men who will not treat them like trash and $2 hos.
A friend of mine from high school has found some success in standup comedy. He used to make jokes about being the only black kid at our high school (he wasn’t; he had a younger brother), and he now has some material about dating white girls. He insists that, “unlike most black guys,” he has standards, “…aaaaand a weight limit!”
Wouldn’t be funny if it wasn’t true!
Does Lindsay Wagner date?
I’m a fucking Oracle. I called this shit, that the next evolution in race card theory would be the expansion of “racist” to include private, intimate choices and interactions between individuals. Called that one.
We’re heading down the road to where a certain element of society wants to control who you fucking date, marry, and reproduce with. With the goal of eliminating a certain racial group within society, I’m sure.
But I forgot. White straight men are the nazis.
Wasn’t that the point of the movie “THX-1138”? Stripped of individuality, assigned numbers instead of names, drones instead of people….
If they want to live in that, a walled-in- dystopia, let them. Just make sure they stay in that walled-up world and don’t bother the rest of us. And make sure they’re all spayed and neutered.
THX-1138, like Brave New World, is mis-interpreted by some on the left as templates, not warnings.
“We just need to make a few tweaks, and put the -proper- leaders in charge…”
“Trust us!”
There’s already been an attempt by huffpo et al to claim that men who don’t want to bang, date, and/or marry trannies (including those who still retain their junk) are eeeeeeevil transphobic nazis.
“I’m a fucking Oracle.”
Dammit. Between you and 26Limabeans, I’ll have to give this place up just to stay alive.
This approaches something bordering on libel. Maybe HuffPo should back off a bit. We are still allowed to CHOOSE our social circles, you know.
For now.
Yep. The meme is that anything white people want or do is de facto racist. Cultural Marxism on steroids.
“We are still allowed to CHOOSE our social circles, you know.” Not if the liberal scum has their way.
Well, then, let’s just make sure, for all eternity, that they DO NOT get to have their way. EVER. To Infinity and beyond.
The idea that people dating whomever they wish is “a problem” that some app owner plans to fix is disturbing. And it is an interesting counterpoint to the current wave of TV advertising which gives the impression that most folks are in interracial relationships.
Social engineering…
I’m not big on racial pride, since being proud of something that was predetermined is pretty stupid. But the more SJWs hate on people who look like me, the more I tell myself I’m not going to take this shit.
One thing that gets me is why interracial children are treated as if they are the race of the non-white parent. Obama, for instance. First black president? Interesting, since his black roots walked out on him and barely ever knew him. If you want me to marry a non-white just so we can have non-white babies (too late, btw) and there can be less people who look like me in the world, I’m not interested.
Again, racial pride from any color is pretty fucking silly, but I’m not going to go for racial prostration and apologize for having the biological characteristics that I do, either.
I once took my daughter to a doctor’s appointment when she was about 1-1/2. My wife usually tries to schedule such things so that we can both be there, but things occasionally come up, so she had another commitment that day. The nurses hand me my daughter’s paperwork and tell me to check that everything is accurate. As I read the chart, I come to the line that says “Race – Asian.”
I immediately say, “What the hell? I don’t count?”
So I checked the “White” box alongside the “Asian” one. And then I crossed out the “select one” instruction and wrote “biracial” under it. And of course, the form said “State of California” across the top, but insisted that only one “race” be selected.
How do we define race anyway? I’m German-Irish, two options that may look similar but really aren’t. Does that make me biracial? How about my wife, whose paternal grandfather was Chinese? Her dad’s side of the family got extra-special attention from the Khmer Rouge for purely racist reasons. Try telling the Chinese and Japanese that they’re the same race. Or Jews and Arabs. See how that works out. Explain the long-standing bad blood between Russians and Ukranians when they’re not only both white, they’re both Slavs! Hell, how long did Swedes and Norwegians not get along, despite being descended from the same Vikings, with damn-near identical cultures? And for all the talk of “black solidarity,” anyone who’s been to Africa can tell you that there’s lots of races and tribes there who, despite them all being black, are completely different and don’t you DARE confuse one for another! Hutus and Tutsis hate eachother, Zulus and Xhosas hate eachother (though they both agree that they don’t want the Nigerians), etc.
Mixed-race marrying was a crime in some states until 1967 when a unanimous Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. You know the case. It was hand-picked for its name: Loving v. Virginia. Did you know that the Lovings never went to jail? They were given the option of a year in prison each or agreeing not to return to Virginia for 25 years. So, they took door #2, moved to D.C., and later filed suit. Earlier cases had sustained the constitutionality of the laws banning mixed-race marrying b/c both the man and woman were punished equally. Thus, one had no greater or lesser protection than the other under the law. Virginia argued that the Equal Protection Clause was not offended b/c the law applied to both and whites. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for the court that “Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival. …” Notice that he said “survival.” That’s procreation. Somehow, the Supreme Court recently decided that two fags going at it enjoy the same right to marriage. Go Figure.
Is there a lot of research money out there for conducting studies like this with an obvious conclusion? Sponsored by the “Well, Duh! Institute”?
I for one, I like American made white bread. I don’t like that whole grain thing, or the multi grain bread.
Not sure how this can be called racism. The eye likes what the mind wants. For me, a white guy, I have a deep affinity for Asian women. I’m getting old now but it used to be I knew within a few minutes if there were any in a club I walked into. Different guys like different things. I knew white guys who married black women and vice versa. But the fact is, most white guys marry white women. Did they figure out that most black guys marry black women yet?
“Did they figure out that most black guys marry black women yet?”
Whoa, whoa Bill.. research like that is still *decades* away from a conclusion, let alone breakthrough.
I’ve noticed a great many more commercials with mixed race couples. It seems a large majority have light skinned black men in a relationship with white women. The folks who make these commercials don’t do shit w/o first doing extensive studies to determine what people will find acceptable and what will ‘sell’. Frankly, I don’t much give a shit who dates who. Unlike SARC, however, I would insist that anyone with whom I had a relationship be alive. I would find it too difficult to drag my date to the car and then drag them to the bed. I suppose I could eliminate part of the work by skipping the part where I drag her to the bed. The car would work just as well. The intent of the smegma of the left is to keep the conservatives against the ropes by constantly finding ‘issues’ and ‘problems’ that demonstrate how racist we are. We have been fighting a defensive battle for years. It’s time to turn the tide and reply in kind. As long as we are constantly on the defense, it is impossible to mount an offense and bring the truth of the matter to the public. All they hear is ‘Republicans bad, Nazis, razzist, misogynist, environment destroyers, blah, blah, blah’. It won’t end until both ends of the spectrum are made public and that is not happening. The RINOs must take their ideas, positions and beliefs to the public. I’m watching the contests in Florida where I live. The RINOs are milk toast. The liberals are battering the RINOs while the RINOs are playing patti cake.
I don’t even care if they have a pulse.
That is a truly disturbing thing to post. Necrophilia is not a selling point on the dating scene, I would think, but I admire that you don’t even discriminate against the non-living.
My dad is a notorious flirt. Waitresses, receptionists, wherever he is he strikes up a conversation with the ladies.
House we had at the time was on a busy street so there was a sidewalk. This lady in a wheelchair would go by frequently. One day my dad is down at the end of the driveway and she comes up. So naturally, he’s doing his thing. Us boys are up in the garage. My brother turns to us and says, “We say he’ll flirt with anything that walks and talks, but I guess she doesn’t even need to walk.”
I don’t consider it necrophilia as much as I consider it a logical extension of the Rogerian Theorem of unconditional acceptance and positive regard. Who are we to discount the asystolic?
‘Stopping by for a cold one on the way home.’ Or ‘when love really means never having to say you’re sorry.’
I like Asian ladies the best. 👅🍑
Especially Korean
Mine’s Cambodian.
But I must concede that I’ve never, ever encountered an ugly Korean gal. I remain unconvinced that there is such a thing.
12 to 112, and not 12 hours dead.
Expecting people to be sexually attracted to you is pretty rapey, if you ask me. I’m happily off the dating scene, but nobody still in that scene owes anything to your self-esteem.
Out of this ridiculous trashtalk from the LEFT, the one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is that they holler RACIST the loudest and point the finger at everyone around them.
The problem with that is that deflection only works if you refuse to deal with reality that you can’t have everything YOUR way. This is starting to border on that thing called “denial of reality”. Throwing tantrums like they did last week is what little kids do when they can’t have their own way. That creep in Canada attacking a woman is another symptom of this tantrum-prone bunch.
Maybe they should be on the receiving end of what they hand out. But that’s just me.
The Other Whitey said:
EXACTLY what I was thinking the whole time. They study “hookup” apps for superficial people and discover that people on them are (clutches pearls) SUPERFICIAL!”
Well, I NEVER!!!
Funny to me that people whose products facilitate significant social ills like children born out of wedlock, infidelity and STDs are SO concerned about the social ill of “perpetuating racism.” But not, you know, the other stuff.
As far as the “study” itself goes, in the words of noted director/actor/child molester Woody Allen, “The heart wants what it wants.”