Stuff [Race][Gender] Like
This is pretty interesting -- OK Cupid did a phrase-frequency count in its online dating ads and were able to sort them by race and gender, and then identify those phrases that the particular race-gender combination used most uniquely. Its kind of amazing just how much the analysis might fit your stereotyped guesses. Among many others, horseback riding, baths, and Jodi Picoult for white women, with Tom Clancy, Harleys and Soundgarden for white men. Check it out here. (hat tip Flowing Data)
Neville:
Pause for a second to note that these aren't necessarily things people like at all; they are instead, in this context, labels people believe may increase their perceived status.
Viewed this way, less 'amazing'.
September 13, 2010, 10:09 amNoumenon:
In fact, one way to make a huge amount of money is to establish your brand as a signal that other people will understand if you buy it. That's the point of most BMW ads in lower-end magazines -- not to sell BMWs, but to ensure BMW buyers that other people will know they've bought luxury. (See Geoffrey Miller's Spent.)
Jodi Picoult wouldn't seem to work very well as an example of this, though. I never heard of her -- listing "the Lifetime Channel" as an interest would be a much clearer signal to me.
September 13, 2010, 12:30 pmDensityDuck:
Neville: Actually, if that's the case then it makes the preferences even *stranger*. Why would men try to attract mates by claiming to be interested in "sweaty guitar rock, bro-on-bro comedies, things with engines, and dystopias"?
September 13, 2010, 2:25 pmHighway:
"the mind of the white man is the world's greatest sausagefest" may be the best description ever...
September 13, 2010, 4:20 pm