The effect is short-lived, however: People go back to habitual patterns in about a week.
Why? The new-found optimism is quickly overwhelmed by the status quo, by the normal state of affairs. Racial bias in assortative mating is a robust and ubiquitous social phenomenon, and one that is difficult to surmount even with small steps in the right direction. We still have a long way to go.
Online dating is providing new insights into the timeless social process of finding a romantic partner.
Not only does dating on the internet have more and more social impact, he said — the most rigorous estimates suggest that nowadays over 20 percent of heterosexual and nearly 70 percent of same-sex relationships begin online — but it is also a novel and rich source of data. Previous work on mate selection has often been based on marriage records, which don’t contain any information about a romance’s early days, or on self-report surveys, when people are more likely to present themselves in the best, least-prejudiced light.
These “digital footprints” of online interactions can give us a glimpse of interpersonal dynamics at the very start of romantic relationships. We can begin to change our ingrained patterns of choosing partners -because they are often based on false premises.
What’s Race Got To Do With Online Dating? was originally published on blackdoctor.org
