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Updated: May 8, 2026

Using the Race Model Inequality to Quantify Behavioral Multisensory Integration Effects
08:13

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Published on: May 10, 2019

Is there an own-race preference in attractiveness?

Darren Burke1, Caroline Nolan, William Gordon Hayward

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, Australia. darren.burke@newcastle.edu.au

Evolutionary Psychology : an International Journal of Evolutionary Approaches to Psychology and Behavior
|August 17, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Researchers investigated an own-race preference in attractiveness judgments to explain rare interracial relationships. Findings suggest neither own-race bias nor familiarity fully explains assortative mating patterns, indicating other factors are at play.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Human Behavior

Background:

  • Interracial relationships and marriages are statistically rare, even in multicultural societies.
  • Assortative mating, the tendency to pair with similar individuals, is a known phenomenon.
  • A potential, underexplored factor is an own-race preference in perceived attractiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test for an own-race preference in attractiveness judgments.
  • To examine the role of familiarity in attractiveness ratings across different racial groups.
  • To understand factors contributing to observed assortative mating patterns in relationships.

Main Methods:

  • Participants from diverse ancestral and geographic backgrounds rated the attractiveness of faces from European, East Asian, and African origins.
  • Attractiveness judgments were analyzed to identify potential biases.
  • The influence of familiarity was assessed by comparing ratings across groups.

Main Results:

  • A strong own-race bias in attractiveness judgments was not found.
  • Data did not consistently support the role of familiarity in attractiveness ratings.
  • Existing patterns of assortative mating remain only partially explained by these factors.

Conclusions:

  • The study did not find significant evidence for an own-race attractiveness preference.
  • Familiarity does not appear to be a primary driver of attractiveness judgments in this context.
  • Other, yet unidentified, factors likely play a significant role in assortative mating and relationship formation.