Effect of Sexual Racism on Partner Desirability in Gay Asian Men

ABSTRACT

Sexual racism—including or excluding racial minority members in partner selection based on race—negatively affects Asian men who have sex with men (MSM) across various domains. The current study aims to investigate the effect of potential partners’ racial preferences on desirability in Asian MSM. The relationship between sexual racism awareness and partner desirability when evaluating white partners with racial preferences was also investigated. A sample of Asian MSM (N = 128) responded to hypothetical online dating scenarios in which the racial background (Asian/white) and racial preference (none/Asian/white) of facial stimuli were manipulated. A two-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni analyses confirmed that, as hypothesized, among potential white partners, those that exhibited no racial preferences were most desirable, F(1.66, 210.54) = .11.37, p < .001, η_p² = .08. Among potential Asian partners, those that preferred white men were least desirable, F(1.82, 231.60) = 81.95, p < .001, η_p² = .39. Unexpectedly, there was no relationship evident between sexual racism awareness and desirability for potential white partners (in any racial preference condition; all rs < .20). Our findings suggest that overt expression of certain racial preferences can negatively affect desirability in online dating applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual racism
• fetishization
• racial exclusion
• desirability
• gay
• Asian

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical review

This study received ethical approval from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number 14540) (Project Number: 14540), ACON Health’s Research Ethics Review Committee (2019/18), and Thorne Harbour Health’s Community Research Endorsement Panel (THH/CREP/19/011).

Data

Data on which this study is based can be found at https://osf.io/x6svm/?view_only=5cb50066826c44679028ca42c2d81a27

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. A minimal funding allocation was received from the Monash University GDP-A program.