An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health found that people with a romantic partner of a different race had 37% greater odds of holding more liberal political views than people with a same-race partner. However, the size of this difference varied depending on people’s race, sex, and marital status. The paper was published in The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.
Romantic relationships and political beliefs may seem like separate aspects of life, but research suggests that they are closely connected. In the United States, people with conservative political views tend to place greater importance on traditional family structures and are more likely to prefer romantic partners of the same race. Those with liberal views, on the other hand, tend to be generally more accepting of interracial relationships.
Over the past several decades, interracial relationships have become increasingly common, reflecting broader changes in American society and attitudes toward racial diversity. Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage in 1967, public acceptance of such relationships has increased substantially. Recent estimates suggest that roughly one in five newlyweds and cohabiting adults in the United States has a partner from a different racial or ethnic background. However, relatively little is known about the political beliefs of people who are actually involved in such relationships.
One possibility is that people in interracial relationships are more politically liberal because they are generally more open to relationships across racial boundaries and may have greater awareness of racial discrimination. At the same time, political preferences differ considerably according to race, ethnicity, sex, and marital status, making the relationship between romantic partner choice and political ideology more complex than it might initially appear.
Study author Byron Miller and colleagues wanted to compare the political beliefs of people in interracial relationships with those of people in same-race relationships. They expected people in interracial relationships to be more liberal on average, but they also hypothesized that this association would depend on a person’s race, sex, and marital status.
They analyzed data from wave 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). This is a large-scale, longitudinal study in the United States that began in 1994–1995 with adolescents in grades 7–12 attending 80 high schools and 52 middle schools. Since then, researchers have followed participants into adulthood, collecting data on their physical and mental health, social relationships, behaviors, and socioeconomic circumstances. At the time of wave 4, in 2008, participants were approximately 24 to 32 years old.
The analysis included 12,603 participants. Their political beliefs were measured with a single question: “In terms of politics, do you consider yourself very conservative, conservative, middle-of-the-road, liberal, or very liberal?” The researchers classified participants as being in an interracial relationship if their current or most recent romantic partner’s race differed from their own, and they also took into account participants’ race/ethnicity (white, Black, Hispanic, or Asian), sex, marital status, age, and education.
About 15% of participants were in interracial relationships. People in interracial relationships were much less likely to be white than those in same-race relationships (34% versus 74%), and more likely to be Hispanic or Asian.
After accounting for demographic characteristics, people in interracial relationships had 37% greater odds of holding more liberal views than those in same-race relationships. But this association differed across groups. It was weaker among Asian and Hispanic participants than among white participants, and weaker among married participants than among those who were unmarried, while it was stronger among women than among men.
When the researchers looked at combinations of these factors, they found that among married participants, interracial relationships were more strongly linked to liberal views for Black and Asian adults than for white adults. Combinations of race and sex showed no statistically significant differences. The authors suggest that some Asian and Hispanic adults with conservative views may prefer partners from the white majority, while the pattern among married Black and Asian adults may reflect people choosing partners who share their political views.
“Interracial relationships are a catalyst for major changes in racial/ethnic relations and diversity in the United States, especially as children from these romantic relationships contribute to the biracial baby boom,” the study authors wrote. “[A]s this demographic continues to grow more prevalent as the United States becomes more racially/ethnically diverse, the political beliefs of biracial families are likely to have an increasingly greater influence on the policies, processes, and representatives that shape racial and ethnic politics.”
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the political views of people in interracial relationships. However, the design of this study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results. Because of this, it remains unknown whether liberal individuals are more likely to start a relationship with a person of a different race, whether a relationship with a person of a different race makes an individual more liberal, or whether other factors influence both political attitudes and relationship choices.
The data were also collected in 2008, before Donald Trump’s presidency, which some researchers argue has reshaped the political views of men and women, so the findings may not reflect current patterns. Political views were measured with a single question, and the study did not examine specific racial pairings within couples, such as Asian-white or Black-Hispanic partnerships.
The paper, “Biracial at the Ballot Box: Exploring the Association Between Interracial Relationships and Political Beliefs,” was authored by Byron Miller, Madelyn Chandler, and Nico Allen.