Who Interracially Dates: An Examination of the Characteristics of those who have Interracially Dated

Abstract

Interracial romantic relationships are a useful barometer of macrolevel race relations. Much of the research of who enters into interracial relationships concentrates upon marital relationships. While this research is useful, there is little research regarding who interracially dates. Logistical regression analysis was conducted on data from a telephone survey. European-Americans, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans were analyzed separately. Similar demographic and social factors predicted outdating across racial groups. Within three of the four racial groups studied, younger men and those who attended interracial schools were significantly more likely to interracially date. Surprisingly, neither religious preference nor geographic region provided significant explanatory value in interpreting interracial dating. Furthermore, this data did not support notions that majority-group members use interracial dating relationships to “trade up” by dating racial minorities with higher economic and educational attainment.