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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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I wonder how hard it is to predict who will marry interracially.

I ran into an old acquaintance the other day and was surprised to find out he married a black woman. Not surprised because he was a raging racist or something. It's just that in our social circles it's still a bit of an unusual thing to do. Looking back, there was nothing about this guy that said "yes, this is precisely the kind of dude who would marry a black woman."

Maybe the big ML models used by dating services are able to identify people more likely to "marry out" than the average user. Either way, it's clear some humans do, and some absolutely never would. What's behind it? Is it genetic? A particular upbringing?

I'm not even sure why I'm so interested in this question, but I am.

Surely the most important variable is opportunity. It appears that most couples meet through various social circles

some absolutely never would.

I am guessing that this group is in reality quite small, when push comes to shove. Plenty of people say, "I would never date X," but change their mind when they meet a particular person