If you've got a niche sexual interest, there's an app for that. If your thing is getting it on in a coffin, there’s Vampire Passions. Or if you just want to spoon-feed your lover quinoa salad, there’s Gluten Free Singles. But what if your thing is just ‘white guys’?
Encouragingly, researchers at MIT have found that interracial coupling in the US has become more common with the rise of online dating. Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe likes to think this is because apps like hers allow people to branch out beyond their established social networks.
People who get a 10 or a 3 in a ‘hot or not’ challenge get the most messages.
But when it comes to hook-up ups (apps geared to help people meet for sex, rather than dating) racial discrimination is rife.
“No one would walk into a bar wearing a T-shirt that said ‘No Asians!’ but there’s no end of Grindr profiles with stupid lines like, ‘No rice, no spice but black guys to the front of the line,” says Nic Holas, an LGBT rights activist at The Institute of Many. “If you were approached in a bar by someone who is Asian, even if you don’t intend to sleep with him, there are plenty of ways to let him down without making explicit reference to his race – or for that matter, his height or weight or HIV status.”
"Seventy per cent of gay couples in the US met online, but most straight couples still meet via friends."
When it comes to disclosing your HIV status, Holas recommends being transparent so that you don’t set yourself up for rejection. That said, he understands that some guys don’t want to be up front early on because it doesn’t give them a chance to fully explain their situation. “It’s only reasonable to disclose your status when sex is a sure thing,” says Holas. “In NSW, if you are HIV positive, you’re legally obliged to tell anyone who you intend to have sex with. But that’s not the case all over Australia.”
We might not want to admit to ourselves that we have a racial preference, but the algorithms that power online dating profiles work it out pretty quickly, according to former algorithm scientist for OKCupid Luiz Pizzato. “After you’ve interacted with three profiles, that’s enough data for the algorithm to ignore what you said you want and serve you up what it knows you actually want.”
Interestingly, the most conventionally attractive people on OkCupid don’t necessarily get the most messages. “Most users assume that ridiculously good-looking people will get flooded with messages, so they don’t message. Those people with looks that polarize, people who would get 10s and 3s in a ‘hot or not’ challenge, it’s those people who get the most messages,” says Pizzato.
