The data:
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From the paper:
So, what this study shows is that while intra-racial marriage is still the norm, black males have an easier time overcoming the racial barrier compared to black females, and Asian females compared to Asian males.
The paper does not seem to present any facial attractiveness data, although it does present an analysis to discount an alternative hypothesis based on stature differences. According to that hypothesis, Asian females outmarry more easily than Asian males because Asians are shorter, and women tend to marry taller men than themselves.
PLoS ONE 7(2): e31703. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031703
A Facial Attractiveness Account of Gender Asymmetries in Interracial Marriage
Michael B. Lewis
Abstract
Background
In the US and UK, more Black men are married to White women than vice versa and there are more White men married to Asian women than vice versa. Models of interracial marriage, based on the exchange of racial status for other capital, cannot explain these asymmetries. A new explanation is offered based on the relative perceived facial attractiveness of the different race-by-gender groups.
Method and Findings
This explanation was tested using a survey of perceived facial attractiveness. This found that Black males are perceived as more attractive than White or East Asian males whereas among females, it is the East Asians that are perceived as most attractive on average.
Conclusions
Incorporating these attractiveness patterns into the model of marriage decisions produces asymmetries in interracial marriage similar to those in the observed data in terms of direction and relative size. This model does not require differences in status between races nor different strategies based on gender. Predictions are also generated regarding the relative attractiveness of those engaging in interracial marriage.
Link
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From the paper:
The results of the experiment demonstrated that there are robust differences in the relative perceived attractiveness of different racial groups. Further, these differences are affected by the gender of the person being rated. Among males, Black faces were rated as the most attractive followed by White faces and then Asian faces. For the females, Asian faces were seen as the most attractive followed by White and then Black faces. The same pattern was found regardless of the ethnicity of the person doing the ratings.Whatever the perceptions of attractiveness, it seems that people still tend to marry within their own races. For example, in the UK 0.24% of white females marry black males, and the corresponding percentage for the US is 0.56%. Since blacks make up roughly 1/10 of the population in the US, then if race was not an issue, we'd expect white females to marry black males about 10% of the time; the empirical figure is about ~20 times lower.
So, what this study shows is that while intra-racial marriage is still the norm, black males have an easier time overcoming the racial barrier compared to black females, and Asian females compared to Asian males.
The paper does not seem to present any facial attractiveness data, although it does present an analysis to discount an alternative hypothesis based on stature differences. According to that hypothesis, Asian females outmarry more easily than Asian males because Asians are shorter, and women tend to marry taller men than themselves.
PLoS ONE 7(2): e31703. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031703
A Facial Attractiveness Account of Gender Asymmetries in Interracial Marriage
Michael B. Lewis
Abstract
Background
In the US and UK, more Black men are married to White women than vice versa and there are more White men married to Asian women than vice versa. Models of interracial marriage, based on the exchange of racial status for other capital, cannot explain these asymmetries. A new explanation is offered based on the relative perceived facial attractiveness of the different race-by-gender groups.
Method and Findings
This explanation was tested using a survey of perceived facial attractiveness. This found that Black males are perceived as more attractive than White or East Asian males whereas among females, it is the East Asians that are perceived as most attractive on average.
Conclusions
Incorporating these attractiveness patterns into the model of marriage decisions produces asymmetries in interracial marriage similar to those in the observed data in terms of direction and relative size. This model does not require differences in status between races nor different strategies based on gender. Predictions are also generated regarding the relative attractiveness of those engaging in interracial marriage.
Link
The analysis in this paper is so shallow, given the depth of the existing literature, that I am surprised that anyone published it. There is a lot of literature on cultural and economic and psychological reasons to support this, but generalized perceptions of facial attractiveness are highly implausible as likely factors once you control for more plausible factors.
ReplyDelete"Whatever the perceptions of attractiveness, it seems that people still tend to marry within their own races. For example, in the UK 0.24% of white females marry black males, and the corresponding percentage for the US is 0.56%. Since blacks make up roughly 1/10 of the population in the US, then if race was not an issue, we'd expect white females to marry black males about 10% of the time; the empirical figure is about ~20 times lower."
Endogamy rates vary profoundly for people whose combined race and gender differ from each other. There are some racial/gender combinations (e.g. some ethnicities of Asian American women) with out marriage rates as much as 50%, and others with very high endogamy rates. Generation of immigration in immigrant populations is very material, and there is considerable regional variation both due to geographic segregation that takes lots of people out of the potential pool of partners, and due to differences in regional culture.
Also a measurement based on actual marriages alone is incomplete in the context of widespread cohabitation without marriage. For example, in Denver, Colorado, as of 2008, the percentage of children born to an unmarried mother, by ethnicity, was as follows:
Anglo: 17.1%
Asian: 12.6%
Hispanic: 42.2%
Black: 60.6%
Native American: 66.7%
The odds that a child born to a black mother in Denver will live eighteen years with both parents the entire time are on the order of 18%, while the odds that a child born to a white mother in Denver will live eighteen years with both parents the entire time are on the order of 47%. Interracial pairs are quite likely to be atypical of these percentages.
One more point. The article states that "Third, many of the Black people that make up the samples in the US data may have been mixed-race (the US census does not offer a mixed-race category)."
ReplyDeleteThis is not accurate. In fact the U.S. census offers both the ability to identify with more than one race, and an "other race" category, and everyone who self-identifies as ethnically "Hispanic" must also choose an independent racial identification. A significant percentage of people who are classified as "black" in the U.S. census also mark a Hispanic ethnicity or one or more additional races on their census forms.
Also, FWIW, in the U.S. the identifications of "black" and "white" each involve less European and African admixture respectively than in Latin America, for example. But, level of admixture is generally very consistent between genders.
consistent with this:
ReplyDeletehttp://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/a-fascinating-insight-into-on-line-mate-selection/
Among males, Black faces were rated as the most attractive followed by White faces and then Asian faces.
ReplyDeleteCould this be due to differences in testosterone?
That study used 40 students to rate attractiveness. Their conclusions are wrong.
ReplyDeleteSee these numbers involving over 1 million+ messages on a dating website.
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-race-affects-whether-people-write-you-back/
White females responded to black males the very least and same with Asian males with the exception of Indian males. Asian females responded to white males the most. That was not the situation for white males responding to Asian females. White males received the most responses from females of just about every race. I think the biggest advantage that black males have is that their faces are just all black. That masks their features. Now with African albinos the contrast changes to where their facial features are marked. Search African albino and you get the idea. It's similar in a way with blond hair drawing attention away from the face.
So in the end white females do not find black males attractive. It's the opposite. Millionaire white females do not marry blacks. Second generation Asian immigrants in Western civilizations seek white males due to their cultural upbringing.
"Could this be due to differences in testosterone?"
For overall testosterone levels with controls placed there isn't much difference. Testosterone varies based on environmental factors. Whites on average are more sedentary, do less manual labor, drive instead of walking to work and so forth. A sedentary lifestyle lowers testosterone levels. Blacks have more estradiol and DHT. In old age blacks have less testosterone than other races.
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/92/7/2519.full
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/91/11/4326.full
@Andrew Shallow indeed, and worthless drawing conclusions from a sample of only 40 people. Virtually all the Chinese females I know express admiration for White features for example.
ReplyDeleteIf this study was made with White men being more attractive, there would be calls of racism and recalls of the study to be stricken from record, whereas if it is the opposite it is promoted and goes unchallenged.
ReplyDeleteI would say it is highly questionable study and likely garbage(as I am aware of that Okcupid piece and others proving this shabby piece as erroneous and more a pop culture thing) and probably an old news article being reported as new as Peter Frost's blog ran a similar piece some time back. Unless of course the University of Cardiff has some hidden agenda here?!
"Previous research has suggested that perceived attractiveness and personality are affected by the race such that White faces are more attractive but less masculine than Black faces. Such studies, however, have been based on very small stimulus sets. The current study investigated perceived attractiveness and personality for 600 Black, White and mixed-race faces. Many of the investigated personality traits were correlated with race when rated by White participants. Attractiveness specifically was greater for Black male faces than White male faces and among mixed-race faces. Blackness correlated with increased attractiveness. A reverse pattern was found for female faces with Whiteness being associated with attractiveness. The results are discussed in terms of the sexual dimorphism demonstrated in skin color. (Lewis 2010)"
http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2010/12/sex-ethnicity-and-facial-skin.html
Actually yellow skin pigment is more important and attractive than masculine faces.
http://www.livescience.com/18414-healthy-skin-attraction.html
And white males with brown eyes are more attractive and masculine:
http://web.natur.cuni.cz/flegr/pdf/eyecolor.pdf
One would expect Mongoloid men and women to be at the top of the pecking order with that Cardiff study since East Asians have more of the yellow pigmentation. Realistically this Welsh study is probably just multiculturalism promotion of interracial dating in the UK or reflects the way women are just in that university or the Uk as a whole(but that may be a stretch with the latter).
@anon Rubbish. What the hell would you know? I'm a white female and I concur that black guys are very attractive. I would date one. I do like Caucasian men better though. I prefer Scandinavians and Southern Europeans.
ReplyDelete