The purpose of this study is to investigate what is most important of common race or common ethnicity in the choice of who you want to date. This study highlights how white swedes select and reason about whom one wants to date based on common race and common ethnicity​. Gordon ​Allport's theory of Social categorisation was chosen as a theoretical starting point, based on the purpose of this study. The analysis is based on 20 quantitative surveys and 6 qualitative interviews. The overall data that was collected focused on who you want to date in terms of common race and common ethnicity, but the surveys leaned towards the selection between common race or common ethnicity and the interviews leaned towards the reasoning behind the selection between race and ethnicity. The result shows that the majority of the respondents could consider to date anyone regardless of common race or common ethnicity. But having to choose between common race and common ethnicity, common ethnicity was more important.

The purpose of this research study was to conduct an exploration of the dating preferences of African American women and U.S. men between the ages of 30-74 years old. This research focuses on the dating preferences and desirability of African American women and if they are influential on the high unmarried rates of African American women. A weighted stratified sampling of 2,800 personal advertisements of African American, Asian, Latino and White men and women from Match.com were collected to conduct the research. The five research hypotheses of this study were tested using frequency and percentage distribution, logistic regression and cross-tabulation models. The findings partially support the hypotheses African American women are more likely to prefer a mate with a bachelor's degree or higher and African American women are more likely to prefer a mate of the same race compared to U.S. women of other races. The findings also suggested non-African American men are less likely to have an interest in dating African American women and non-African American men, who are interested in dating African American women, are less likely to prefer women with a bachelor's degree or higher or a more socially desirable body type.