A new study shows that racism on hookup apps does real harm to mental health.
The research appears in the Archives of Sexual Behavior and is the result of a survey of over 1,000 men recruited from Grindr. The results showed that men of color who have sex with men “experienced significantly more race-based sexual discrimination” compared to white men who have sex with men.
In addition, researchers learned that “race-based sexual discrimination was significantly associated with lower self-esteem and, in turn, lower life satisfaction.”
Researchers noted there are some limitations to their findings. Notably, there were not enough respondents in racial subgroups for comparison. The data suggest that Latino, Middle Eastern, Indigenous/Pacific Islander, and multiracial participants experience significantly less discrimination than Asian and South Asian participants, which is consistent with other studies.
The results are in line with a 2015 report from researchers at New York University and the University of New South Wales in Sydney. That study encompassed a much smaller sample — just 14 people — but delved deeper with lengthy interviews, finding that sexual racism was a consistent component of online dating. While it was often expressed subtly, respondents reported that outright aggressive racism was not unheard of.
Dating apps are aware of this problem. In 2014, an OkCupid study found that white users were more likely to get messages, less likely to respond the messages from people of color, and more likely to question interracial marriage.
While these issues are true both for queer and straight users, Grindr has particularly faced criticism over the sexual racism problem on its app. In a 2015 study, researchers discovered that 15 percent users express racist preferences or discriminatory rhetoric in their profiles. White men are particularly likely to guilty of racism on apps. Read more via Out
Thai, Michael. "Sexual Racism Is Associated with Lower Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction in Men Who Have Sex with Men." Archives of sexual behavior (2019): 1-7.
Abstract
Men of color who have sex with men (MCSM) commonly experience sexual racism within the community of men who have sex with men (MSM) and are often rejected as potential sexual and romantic partners as a result. The present study quantitatively investigated whether MCSM experience more race-based sexual discrimination relative to White MSM and whether there is an association between experiences of race-based sexual discrimination and two indicators of psychological well-being, namely self-esteem and life satisfaction. Participants were 1039 Australian MSM (774 White MSM, 265 MCSM) recruited from Grindr, a popular mobile geosocial networking app for MSM, who reported their experiences of race-based sexual discrimination, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Results showed that MCSM experienced significantly more race-based sexual discrimination relative to White MSM, and that race-based sexual discrimination was significantly associated with lower self-esteem and, in turn, lower life satisfaction. These results further corroborate past qualitative work that has long suggested a link between sexual racism and psychological well-being for MCSM. Implications and future directions are discussed.
Discussion
There is emerging evidence to show that experiences of sexual racism can have implications for the psychological well-being of MCSM (Bhambhani et al., 2018; Han, 2007; Han & Choi, 2018; Paul et al., 2010; Ro et al., 2013). The present study aimed to contribute to this literature by determining whether MCSM experience more race-based sexual discrimination than White MSM and whether this increased exposure to race-based sexual discrimination is associated with two indicators of psychological well-being, namely self-esteem and life satisfaction. Findings demonstrated that MCSM did experience greater race-based sexual discrimination than White MSM and that experienced race-based sexual discrimination was associated with lower self-esteem and, in turn, lower life satisfaction.
The present study is the first to quantitatively demonstrate that MCSM are exposed to more race-based sexual discrimination than White MSM and that this difference is large and statistically significant. This extends upon the previous research which has to date only qualitatively indicated that MCSM may experience greater race-based sexual discrimination than do White MSM (Callander et al., 2016; Han, 2007; Paul et al., 2010). It also provides further support for the notion of a racial hierarchy of desire within the MSM community, wherein White men are considered more sexually and romantically desirable than men of color (Han & Choi, 2018; Paul et al., 2010; Plummer, 2007; Rafalow et al., 2017; Wilson et al., 2009). This discrepancy in experienced race-based sexual discrimination between MCSM and White MSM warrants further work to examine the consequences that heightened exposure to sexual racism may have for MCSM.
The previous work has shown that experiences of sexual racism predicts greater psychological distress, specifically depression, anxiety, and stress (Bhambhani et al., 2018). The present study contributes to this work by being the first to quantitatively demonstrate that experiences of race-based sexual discrimination also predict lower self-esteem and life satisfaction. These findings provide quantitative evidence to corroborate a link between sexual racism and self-esteem that has to date only been established qualitatively (Han, 2007; Ro et al., 2013). These findings are also the first to establish a link between sexual racism and life satisfaction. This supports the idea that MCSM, who tend to experience greater sexual racism, may, as a result, question their own desirability and worth, thus undermining their self-esteem and resultant life satisfaction.
There is contention regarding whether discriminating between potential sexual and romantic partners based on race constitutes racism, with some considering it a form of racial bias and others maintaining that it merely reflects benign personal preference (Callander et al., 2015; Thai et al., 2019). The present findings provide further support for the notion that sexual racism is comparable to general racial discrimination. For example, like general forms of racial discrimination, the present findings show that race-based sexual discrimination is experienced disproportionately by MCSM compared to White MSM. This reveals that even in the domain of dating and attraction, there exists a hierarchy that privileges White men. Second, irrespective of whether or not it is defined as racist, sexual racism has the same associations with psychological well-being as general racial discrimination (Choi et al., 2013; Schmitt et al., 2014). Like general forms of racial discrimination, exposure to sexual racism predicts greater depression, anxiety, and stress (Bhambhani et al., 2018), as well as lower self-esteem and life satisfaction.
Thus, the present findings demonstrate that sexual racism is another form of race-based discrimination that needs to be factored in when considering the stressors that racial minority group members face. It is an especially important stressor to consider in the context of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991). Research shows that having multiple intersecting minority identities puts individuals at greater risk of minority stress (Meyer, Schwartz, & Frost, 2008). MCSM not only face homonegativity as a result of their status as MSM (Meyer, 2013), but also face racial discrimination as a result of their status as people of color (Choi et al., 2013; Schmitt et al., 2014). In addition to this, the present study adds to mounting evidence that MCSM are particularly susceptible to sexual racism, which is heightened in the MSM community (Phua & Kaufman, 2003; Plummer, 2007).
Given that sexual racism is a common occurrence for MCSM and has implications for their psychological well-being, it is imperative that this research is translated into practice to benefit and protect the MCSM in the community. Interventions could be developed to actively discourage practices associated with sexual racism in the MSM community. For example, online dating sites and mobile geosocial networking apps like Grindr are platforms on which dating and other forms of sexual and romantic interactions between MSM most commonly play out. They are also platforms on which sexual racism most frequently emerges (Callander et al., 2015; Paul et al., 2010; Rafalow et al., 2017; Robinson, 2015). Thus, anti-sexual racism messages could be disseminated on such platforms to reduce the occurrence of sexual racism. In 2018, Grindr debuted the “Kindr” initiative, which coincided with an update of the app’s official community guidelines and encouraged users to refrain from engaging in discriminatory behavior on the app (Grindr, 2018). Although there are no data that speak to the effectiveness of the campaign, it is an exemplar of the types of interventions that can be used to mitigate the salience of sexual racism in the lives of MCSM.