A new study found that White young adults who accept color-blind racial ideology tend to show greater romantic attraction to White individuals, while Black young adults who are more accepting of this ideology tend to show lower romantic attraction to Black individuals. The paper was published in Personal Relationships.
There is an old saying that “birds of a feather flock together.” This means that people with similar characteristics tend to be attracted to one another. Studies seem to support this idea in the context of romantic relationships. For example, partners who perceive a high level of similarity with each other tend to experience greater marital happiness, remain together longer, and have more children than couples who perceive less similarity. Scientists refer to this phenomenon as the principle of homogamy.
One characteristic that may contribute to feelings of similarity is race. People might perceive others of their own race as more similar than those of different races, and consequently prefer them as romantic partners, in accordance with the principle of homogamy. Some studies support this notion. For instance, a study published in 2008 reported that people strongly prefer to date same-race partners despite having diverse dating opportunities. However, because individuals differ in the characteristics they consider important when assessing similarity, not everyone may favor those of their own race as potential romantic partners.
Study author James E. Brooks and his colleagues sought to explore whether racial ideologies are connected to what they call same-race bias among young adults. In other words, they aimed to determine whether romantic preferences for individuals of one’s own race compared to those of other races depend on one’s racial ideology.
The researchers hypothesized that participants would report greater attraction toward individuals from their own racial group. They also believed that color-blind racial ideology would influence this effect—but in opposite directions for White and Black participants. More specifically, they expected that White individuals who are more accepting of color-blind racial ideology would show a stronger preference for White partners, while Black individuals with higher acceptance of this ideology would exhibit a weaker romantic preference for Black partners.
Color-blind racial ideology is the belief that race should not be acknowledged or considered in social interactions, policies, or decision-making, often based on the assumption that treating everyone the same will lead to racial equality. It is typically divided into two components: color evasion, which denies racial differences and claims that race does not matter, and power evasion, which rejects the existence of systemic racial privilege and discrimination.
The study involved 374 individuals between the ages of 18 and 25, recruited via Prolific. All participants identified as either Black or White. The final sample consisted of 107 White men, 81 White women, 70 Black men, and 108 Black women.
Participants were presented with dating profiles of six individuals—three Black individuals and three White individuals of the gender to which the participant reported being attracted. The profiles were balanced in terms of physical attractiveness. Each profile contained a color photograph and a short description of the person. Participants rated their romantic attraction to these profiles using five items (e.g., “I would be excited to get to know her better”) and completed assessments measuring their endorsement of color-blind racial ideology (via the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale) and multiculturalism (via the Multicultural Ideology Scale).
The results showed that Black participants endorsed multicultural ideology more strongly than White participants did. Additionally, men showed greater endorsement of color-blind racial ideology than women did. Overall, Black and White participants did not differ in their romantic attraction to profiles of individuals from different races; however, participants reported a moderately higher romantic attraction for individuals of their own race.
Interestingly, the degree of romantic attraction to individuals of another race depended on the level of acceptance of color‐blind racial ideology. Among White participants, the same‐race bias increased as their endorsement of color‐blind racial ideology increased. In other words, the difference in attraction between profiles of White and Black individuals became larger among White participants with higher acceptance of the ideology. In contrast, among Black participants, those with higher endorsement of color‐blind racial ideology exhibited a weaker same‐race bias compared to those with lower endorsement.
Additionally, White men showed a higher same-race bias than White women, whereas Black men showed a lower same-race bias than Black women.
This study sheds light on the role of race in romantic attraction. However, it should be noted that the research was conducted on a group of young people and was limited exclusively to individuals identifying as Black or White; results might differ for other demographic groups.
The paper, “Same-race bias in romantic attraction among young adults: Daters’ race, gender, and racial ideologies,” was authored by James E. Brooks, Chandler K. Hawkins, and Dionne A. White.