Race matters when it comes to searching for a partner online, according to a new study

A sociologist has found that members of dating sites are most likely to contact individuals who share their own racial background on dating websites. Professor Kevin Lewis studied the interaction patterns of 126,134 users of dating website OkCupid.com in the United States over a two-and-a-half month period. The sociologist, from the University of California, San Diego, found the tendency to initiate contact with someone from a shared race, is strongest among East and South Asians and weakest among whites, the study said.