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Article
Positioning Multiraciality in Cyberspace: Treatment of Online Daters in an Online Dating Site
American Sociological Review (2015)
  • Celeste Curington
  • Ken-Hou Lin
  • Jennifer H. Lundquist, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Abstract

The U.S. multiracial population has grown substantially in the past decades, yet little is known about how these individuals are positioned in the racial hierarchies of the dating market. Using data from one of the largest dating websites in the United States, we examine how monoracial daters respond to initial messages sent by multiracial daters with various White/non-White racial and ethnic makeups. We test four different theories: hypodescent, multiracial in-betweenness, White equivalence, and what we call a multiracial dividend effect. We find no evidence for the operation of hypodescent. Asian-White daters, in particular, are afforded a heightened status, and Black-White multiracials are treated as an in-between group. For a few specific multiracial gender groups, we find evidence for a dividend effect, where multiracial men and women are preferred above all other groups, including Whites. racial identity multiracial assortive mating online dating

Keywords
  • Racial identity,
  • Multiracial,
  • Assortive mating,
  • Online dating
Publication Date
August, 2015
Citation Information
Celeste Curington, Ken-Hou Lin and Jennifer H. Lundquist. "Positioning Multiraciality in Cyberspace: Treatment of Online Daters in an Online Dating Site" American Sociological Review (2015)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jennifer_lundquist/37/