Sociologists have long been interested in the concept of preferences, whether they’re favorite foods or people we’re attracted to. (During the 2020 #BLM protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Grindr eliminated the ethnicity filter.)

His image of his ideal partner was so fixed that he would rather – as he put it – “be celibate” than be with a Black or Latino man. That user went on to explain that he had even purchased a paid version of the app that allowed him to filter out Latinos and Black men.

A Grindr profile used in the study specifies interest in certain races.