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Airdate: Is Love Racist? The Dating Game

This UK doco explores our hidden biases when it comes to choosing a potential partner.

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UK documentary Is Love Racist? The Dating Game will screen on streaming platform iwonder in February.

iwonder Head of Content, Alexandra Fox-Hughes, says of the film: “Singletons might think they’re making conscious decisions on the suitability of a potential partner, but what this fascinating film shows is that behind every swipe left or swipe right, there are a number of deeply engrained preconceptions and prejudices influencing our decisions. No matter what people’s personal preference are when it comes to finding the perfect match, understanding more about what’s guiding their choices could be a hugely important step towards finding happiness in the complex worlds of love and dating.”

Tackling a rarely discussed dating taboo in the run up to Valentine’s Day, new this , and only on iwonder, comes Is Love Racist? The Dating Game, getting under the skin of the objects of our affection to reveal our hidden biases when it comes to choosing a potential partner.

Sociologist and broadcaster Emma Dabiri takes an in-depth look at racism in Britain through the world of modern dating, unveiling the results of a major survey of online dating habits. Central to the film, a volunteer group of young singletons take part in a series of experiments to discover if there is more than meets the eye going on in the flighty world of modern dating apps.

Discussing some of the findings revealed in the documentary, Emma Dabiri says: “We like to think that our preferences are something that are innate and really personal and individual to each of us. But if that is the case, why is there such an overwhelming preference towards whiteness?”

Using eye-cameras to analyse onlookers’ visual responses to people of different races, a Harvard University association test to reveal subconscious biases, and a number of other psychological experiments, over the course of the documentary the subjects and their observers unpick what’s really going on beneath the hidden rules of attraction and the role society plays in shaping of view of love.

Tuesday 9th February on iwonder.

3 Responses

  1. Of course it is. Every person in the world is racist, when you use the definition at its purest (not as the negative consequences of stereotypes) – it is innate to seek your own kind, people like you in a myriad of different measures. The real point should be that it is a non-issue if a couple choose an interracial marriage.

  2. I remember the Insight episode about race and dating. It was quite interesting hearing people’s experiences🤔 I could imagine Tinder would really bringing out prejudices since you don’t even get to know the people you make a snap judgement off a photo it is easy for the brain to go straight to stereotypes to make such quick judgements.

  3. 100% – everyone has a type
    And the ones usually telling us it’s racist typically go for their own anyway. Well that’s what I’ve picked up on in Sydney.

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