Basically, someone took thousands of profiles from a dating site called OKCupid and separated them by gender and by race (what the people themselves classified their race to be). Then he analyzed all the parts about what the people like in order to find the top 50 things that people of that race and gender list as what they like. (It doesn't say, but I believe that these people are all in America).
Let's see what white women like v.s. what Indian women like. And which one am I closer to?
White Women
the red sox= Well, I'm from Boston and that's our team. I don't care about sports at all and would never mention it in an online dating profile, but if I'm going to root for any team it will be them.
jodi picoult= Yuk. I think her writing is terrible. I read one of her books and the plot had an enormous hole in it and was very disappointing.
boating= not interested
nascar= really, really not interested
mascara= it's useful sometimes, I guess. I already have very dark and thick eyelashes, so I don't worry about mascara much.
ireland= the land of my ancestors from one side of my family.
nicholas sparks= Yuk. Even worse writing than Picoult. Horrible, overblown romantic stuff
horseback riding= never done it
bonfires= never done it
flea markets= never been to one, though they sound fun
a country girl= not at all
nora ephron= I do like her writing and her movies. She did My Blue Heaven, which is fantastic
waitress= the profession or the movie? I've never been a waitress. The movie was okay
ray lamontagne= I don't know who this is
i'm blond= Nope, never have been
yankees= This is the team directly against my Red Sox team, so certainly not!
kenny chesney=heard of him, but never heard his music
decorating= LOVE
getting dressed up= LOVE (hello, gorgeous sari)
skiing= I did it once when I was a kid, didn't care for it
when harry met sally= cute movie
baths= not really, although I like them better than showers
my red hair= I do like my red hair. Thanks to henna I am delighting in having orange hair in front.
horses= I like animals in general, horses are nothing special to me
summertime= Sure, summer is fine.
wine= I don't drink any alcohol
dmb= don't know what this is
historical fiction= I've enjoyed it when I've tried it, though I'm more into literary fiction and classics
cookbooks= love them
flip-flops= indifferent to them
my girlfriends= having friends is nice
the time traveler's wife= Amazing book and I highly recommend it
country music= don't care for it
diet coke= I hate soda
dirty dancing= good movie, nice love story
coffee= I also hate coffee
thunderstorms= I like rain more than I like thunderstorms
midwest= I drove through the midwest once
tim mcgraw= heard of him, never heard his music
new recipes= Yeah, new recipes are always good
patricia cornwell= heard of her, never read any of her books
mom= I like my mom
carrie underwood= heard of her, never heard her music
nursing school= I'm not a nurse, so never been
eat pray love= LOVE, we've all ready established that
yoga= I like it okay, but I've talked about that before too
pilates= good exercise
my toes= Um, weird. I am fond of my feet. I don't know why. They are very small and I think they are pretty.
animal lover= I do love animals
baking=I do love cooking, though baking is something I'm not great at.
I'm giving myself a generous 19 out of 50.
Indian Women
bhangra= love it. I love the music and I love the dancing, but I'm not so good at the dancing. I enjoy watching it, though. My college had an amazing bhangra team
the namesake= amazing book and very good movie, I highly recommend them both
shantarama= I haven't read it
thousand splendid suns= haven't read yet
bollywood= love
residency= not a doctor, so I don't know about this one (see, right there you can tell I'm not an Indian, I've never even considered being a doctor)
the kite runner= it's on my list of books to read
jhumpa lahiri= Love. She is the author of the Namesake above. I've read all her work and I'm a huge fan.
interpreter= still only monolingual :(
indian food= love some of it. it is often too spicy for me, but I'm trying to build up my tolerance.
my passport= I'm fond of my passport, but I probably would not list it on a dating site.
my couch= I like my couch.
thai food= I really like pad thai, which I only just found out about this year. Haven't tried anything else.
slumdog millionaire= great movie
i heart a foodie= food is yummy
spices= like them
monsoon= never experienced one. Maybe it would cause me to change my mind about loving the rain?
wedding= LOVE weddings. I read about weddings a lot and really enjoy going to weddings and hearing about people's weddings.
bridget jones= love the movies, haven't read the books yet
vegetarian= yup.
frnds= Friends? I like them.
new yorker= shudder. No, I dislike New York.
my parents= Yup, I like them. Both of them.
neighborhoods= Sure, neighborhoods are nice
social justice= I believe in it
different cultures= Obviously :)
physician= nope
soca= I don't know what this means
when harry met sally= very enjoyable movie
be silly= Not so much. I get accused of being too serious a lot. I have a sense of humor, but it's kind of a subtle, wry, British sense of humor that I got from my dad (and I don't know where he got it, as he's from North Carolina).
norah jones= the couple songs of hers I've heard, I've liked
paradiso= I don't know what this is, but it sounds really familiar...is it a movie?
anna karenina= Haven't read it yet and I'm ashamed. My dad loves Russian authors and I've been meaning to read this one.
tapas= yummy
funny= see "be silly."
the alchemist= haven't read it, but it sounds good
dance floor= I do enjoy dancing, though I'm terrible at modern club dancing
my mom's= her house? It's fine.
exotic destinations= Sure.
the unbearable lightness of being= Love the title and have always meant to read it just for that
discovering new things= Yup. I love to learn and I'm always trying to learn new things all the time.
gandhi= I like him
dark chocolate= Yum.
analyst= ?
jane austen= Love
coffee= Don't like
vivacious= Um, I don't know if anyone would call me this
great conversation= I like to think so, as long as you enjoy philosophical meandering
salman rushdie= I like his writing
god of small things= it's on my bed side table, but I haven't read it yet.
And for this one, I get 30 out of 50.
Hmmmm. In either category it looks like I'm not really the statistical norm. Although, I get 11 more points in Indian than in white.
I actually get more points on the Indian, Asian & Middle Eastern than the 'white' category. I got 11 for white, 33 for Indian & 31 for Asian. Apparently my love of cooking, baking, food & my cellphone puts me right over the top. lol. Admittedly I think eyeliner is a far more important cosmetic than mascara... I don't leave the house without eyeliner & never use mascara.
ReplyDelete*I think 'dmb' might be - Dave Matthews Band??
Ah, Dave Matthews, that could be it. I'm told I've heard their music, as it gets played on the radio, but I wouldn't be able to identify it.
ReplyDeleteI guess I should have rated myself on a third category that I know I shouldn't have much in common with, as a control.
The bit about "not being a doctor" made me laugh, because as an English man when I read your profile:
ReplyDeleteAamba
MD, United States
I read it as
Aamba MD,
United States
It took my American wife to tell me that in fact it meant that you came from Maryland rather than being a doctor of medicine!
Wow cool! (and, I love the way that site analyses all sorts of things...so perfect for a nerd like me!) I got 11 for white and 36 for Indian. But then, finalising details for my next trip there I am in an Indian kinda mood (maybe in a few weeks when I am in the US I will amp up on the white stuff :D) I thought residency in the Indian list related to residency of a country though.
ReplyDeleteI've read the Kite Runner. It's... interesting, but I found it quite sad. Honestly, I'd suggest "Three Cups of Tea". *That's* a good book to read about Afghan-American relations, and a true story, to boot.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I never thought how "MD" in my profile looks like doctor. I think I'll change that. Apparently my mom's friend's GPS says "dr" as "doctor" even though it's driving directions, so it should be "drive," as in "turn right at Old Columbia Doctor..."
ReplyDeleteSome of the things I had to guess what they meant, since the context has been stripped away in this exercise. I could be wrong entirely about residency.
I was sad to see some of the stuff about writing level and religious devotion. I wonder why the more devoted someone is to religion, the worse his or her writing is? There was a time when those were the real scholars, now it's people saying "God is like so awsum youknow? i heart god and he is so great and i cant be great like that cause thats how people are not great." Wow, that was painful to write! :)
I'll try Three Cups of Tea. I have heard good things about it and that's it's uplifting.
So, for another point of comparison, I get 21 on the Latina scale. I have no connection to that culture at all (One thing on there was "my hair" and I do love my hair!)
ReplyDeleteAmba, I would score very low on the list for Indian women as none of the books mentioned are on my reading list save J.Austen .About White women's vs Indian women's preferences- funny they mention Yoga but not Indian women.Also funny Music is nowhere mentioned on the Indian profile-the sample must have been dominated by Punjabis.
ReplyDeleteAbout the lower level of learning/writing amongst the religious people,maybe the sample had a preponderance of such people,and probably the seriously religious,but more articulate [in writing/reading] have other means of networking than dating sites.
Btw, most of my preferences on the White women's list are in tiny-sized characters[so way down on the list ,I suppose.
Aamba, as far as the correlation between religion and poor writing skills, I was actually talking to Rab about this, and I posit that it has more to do with economic factors than religion.
ReplyDeleteThink about it - which social groups are most likely to be protestant and catholic by heritage? African-Americans and Latinos - groups which tend to live in urban areas with overcrowded, poorly run schools.
I think this is also supported by the generally high literacy rates of Jewish and Hindu religions. Most Jewish and Indian families tend to be middle to upper class, and therefore able to afford better schooling and put more emphasis on doing well.
I think this graph shows a stronger correlation of education affecting religion than vice-versa.
Beth
ReplyDeleteHindu religions do not have high literacy rates in India. Hindus in US generally come from upper level of Hindu society. Poor hindus would not be able to migrate anyway.
newton (from india)
Ethnocentric as charged.
ReplyDeleteI believe the data came from a US-run dating webservice; I was making generalizations based on my perception of socio-economic classes *specifically in America* and neglected to mention that bit.
Good point, Beth! I had not thought of it like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, this was a U.S. based survey, so the results would be quite different if we looked at others.
I wonder what interesting results we would get if we divided shaadi.com profiles by region... :)