Couples who meet online are more likely to be interracial than couples who meet in real life, according to a 2019 sociological study by the University of New Mexico. And that's a promising sign, given that meeting online is now the most common way couples (heterosexual, at least) are meeting each other.
"Online dating has changed the way people meet their partners not only in America but in many places around the world," the study's author, associate professor of sociology Reuben Thomas, wrote. "We conclude that there is evidence suggesting that online dating is causing more interracial marriages, and that this change is ongoing."
But there's a difference between correlation and causation. Has more online dating directly resulted in an increase in interracial couples? So far, the answer is yes, a little bit, according to the study.
"Population-level estimates suggest that only a small part of the recent changes in couple diversity can be directly attributed to couples meeting online, but there is the potential for more Internet-induced change if it continues to expand as the modal source of romance," Thomas wrote.
The study confirms the main finding of a 2017 paper by Josué Ortega at the University of Essex in the UK and Philipp Hergovich at the University of Vienna in Austria. It suggested that online dating should increase the number of interracial relationships as well.
And it certainly doesn't seem that the likes of Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, or Match.com are going anywhere anytime soon. Not to mention, Facebook recently rolled out its own dating service to its 2.45 billion active users.
Online daters say they are open to interracial dating. A 2018 Tinder survey polled 4,244 people (not just Tinder users) ages 24 to 25 living in the US, the UK, Australia, and France. As many as 63% said they've felt more confident about dating people from different races or ethnicities when online dating.
And 66% said that online dating services have made it easier to meet potential partners of a different race or ethnicity. As for Tinder users specifically, 79% say they've been on a date with someone of a different race, compared to 62% of non-Tinder users.
It's important to note, however, that the survey focused on people's attitudes toward interracial dating and their own assessments of their behavior — not on their actual behavior.
While people express positive attitudes toward interracial dating, there is some research that says that the reality of how online daters actually behave may not be as promising.
Data from OkCupid, described in a 2014 blog post, suggests that people's attitudes and behavior around interracial dating can differ drastically.
OkCupid found that, among its users, the number of people who said they strongly preferred to date someone of their own race dropped from roughly 40% to roughly 30% between 2008 and 2014.
But as OkCupid founder Christian Rudder wrote, in that same time frame, "OkCupid users are certainly no more open-minded than they used to be. If anything, racial bias has intensified a bit."
Consider: In 2009, Asian men on OkCupid rated black women 16% less attractive than the average woman. In 2014, Asian men rated black women 20% less attractive.
A 2018 NPR article described the racial discrimination many people still face while online dating. One black woman in her late 20s said she met a white man on Tinder, and when they went on a date, "He was like, 'Oh, so we have to bring the 'hood out of you, bring the ghetto out of you!'"
There is also research that shows people are more likely to message and respond to other people of the same race or ethnicity, the same religion, and the same education level.
Will online dating really change the landscape of love and marriage in the US? That remains to be seen, according to Thomas.
"Expect more public attention to how the most popular sites and apps operate, how their algorithms and interfaces sort users, and what data they keep, share and sell," Thomas writes for NBC News. "And as the stakes of this social change become clearer to everyone, expect online dating to become more politically contentious even as it becomes a more taken-for-granted part of social life."
