In this week's episode Mark Horowitz joins us for a discussion about potential racism revealed by online daters' preferences. In a recent published critique of a book on the subject, Mark questions the authors' claims of systematic and racially exclusionary patterns in online dating. The book was based on a large dataset and we appreciate the complexity of the process used to compile the descriptive statistics. However, we question the authors' conclusions when there are many alternative biosocial explanations. Mark and Elizabeth agree that reducing daters' discriminatory behavior to racism is not supported by the data, and is particularly ill-considered in today's polarized ideological environment.
Podcast Notes
Horowitz, M. (2023). The Dating Dupe―The Limits of Biosocially Unfriendly Sociology. Controversial Ideas, 3(2).
Curington, C. V., Lundquist, J. H., & Lin, K. H. (2021). The dating divide: Race and desire in the era of online romance. University of California Press.
ILV presents the first in a series of panel discussions on Queer Liberalism, cohosted by our partner organization, the online magazine Queer Majority. QM’s Editor-in-Chief Rio Veradonir will moderate. Each discussion will feature a panel of prominent and emerging thinkers with relevant experience and expertise. The goal of the series is to recenter queer discourse on liberalism, by critiquing anti-liberal trends in the movement and modeling a more moderate, reformist approach. After each discussion, there will be a live Q&A.
August panelists include Wilfred Reilly, Iona Italia, Phil Illy, Jimmy Bangash and Ben Appel.
Missing the Love Boat: Insinuations of Racial Prejudice in Online Dating Activity