It's based on people's ratings of profiles, rather than stated prefs. The effects look weaker than in the studies you cite (10-20% less attractive), so more overcome-able. Not sure what's going on there!
How do you square concerns about the dateability of asian men with the fact that a higher fraction of asian men are married than white, black and hispanic men?
I don't understand the American marriage data well. I do have a couple competing hypotheses to offer:
1. Marriage rates and stability are strongly correlated with income (e.g. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/second-quarter-2019/earnings-gap-marital-status-race-gender). Asian American male income has risen dramatically in the period the graph shows, such that now the Asian American average is >30% larger than the White average. So I suspect white male marriage rates are higher than Asian males after correcting for income. In other words, one would expect Asian male's marriage rates to be even higher, if the racial attractiveness gap was closed.
2. Asian male undesirability has declined over this period. The first two studies I discussed use data from the mid-2000s. The number of Asian women dating Asian men has since increased. However, more recent racial preference data still indicate that Asian males are lowest desirability:
Maybe this undesirability has an outsized effect on online dating, hookups, and causal sex, but not much of an effect on marriage.
3. If we take on a Buss & Schmidt style sexual strategies perspective, we may find an explanation for Asian male marriage stability. Asian males are low attractiveness, high income, high education, low violence. This makes their appeal as short-term sexual partners low, but their appeal as long term partners high. I believe one of the studies I cite here shows data that the attractiveness of the spouses of Asian males is low. So there is a nice sexual arbitrage opportunity here that inclines both sides of these marriages against divorce.
Well hello there!
Sadly, I have to disagree with this piece: you're unusually charismatic, my guy. <3
Historical trivia: I was first introduced to these trends from the glorious ol' OkCupid blog. Sadly now defunct, but here's a HuffPost article citing it: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/okcupid-race_n_5811840
It's based on people's ratings of profiles, rather than stated prefs. The effects look weaker than in the studies you cite (10-20% less attractive), so more overcome-able. Not sure what's going on there!
How do you square concerns about the dateability of asian men with the fact that a higher fraction of asian men are married than white, black and hispanic men?
https://usafacts.org/articles/state-relationships-marriages-and-living-alone-us/
I don't understand the American marriage data well. I do have a couple competing hypotheses to offer:
1. Marriage rates and stability are strongly correlated with income (e.g. https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/second-quarter-2019/earnings-gap-marital-status-race-gender). Asian American male income has risen dramatically in the period the graph shows, such that now the Asian American average is >30% larger than the White average. So I suspect white male marriage rates are higher than Asian males after correcting for income. In other words, one would expect Asian male's marriage rates to be even higher, if the racial attractiveness gap was closed.
2. Asian male undesirability has declined over this period. The first two studies I discussed use data from the mid-2000s. The number of Asian women dating Asian men has since increased. However, more recent racial preference data still indicate that Asian males are lowest desirability:
a. Data from 2022: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-021-09931-9
b. Data from 2017: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224499.2025.2473965
c. Data from 2023 (I think): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-024-01450-9
Maybe this undesirability has an outsized effect on online dating, hookups, and causal sex, but not much of an effect on marriage.
3. If we take on a Buss & Schmidt style sexual strategies perspective, we may find an explanation for Asian male marriage stability. Asian males are low attractiveness, high income, high education, low violence. This makes their appeal as short-term sexual partners low, but their appeal as long term partners high. I believe one of the studies I cite here shows data that the attractiveness of the spouses of Asian males is low. So there is a nice sexual arbitrage opportunity here that inclines both sides of these marriages against divorce.