Apryl Williams, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media and the Digital Studies Institute, was recently quoted in The Washington Post. In the article, titled "Black women say dating apps like Hinge are biased. Now some are testing it," Williams says dating apps like Hinge might infer you want to talk to people of your own race based on the ways the algorithm are programmed.
The article reads, "Hinge doesn’t reveal details of its algorithm because the information is considered proprietary. But algorithms tend to operate on the assumption that “like attracts like,” which can come down to users’ appearance, said Apryl Williams, assistant professor of communications and media at the University of Michigan and author of “Not My Type,” which explores racial bias in dating apps and the fetishization of minority users.
In other words, the apps might infer you want to talk to people of your own race based on assumed beliefs about coupling that are programmed into matching systems."
