One in three people have experienced racial discrimination, unsolicited fetishisation or microaggressions when dating online, according to a survey.

Fetishisation is a sexual fascination with a part of someone’s identity which is not inherently sexual, such as race.

The most affected were men and women of mixed race backgrounds, with 42% saying they had experienced this when dating online.

Among women only, the objectification had been experienced by 50% of mixed race women, 33% of black women, and 35% of Asian women.

Just 11% of white women said they had experienced it.

For men, almost a quarter in each ethnic group covered by the survey – black, mixed race, Chinese, Arab – had experienced unsolicited fetishisation.

But the highest for any ethnicity was for Asian men, with 50% agreeing.

The research was based on an online survey of 1,004 UK adults and undertaken on behalf of dating app Bumble.

It also found that just over half of people did not clearly understand what fetishisation is as it relates to identities such as race, body type or profession.

A third of people overall said they had re-evaluated the way they approached race and equality in their relationships, however.

Bumble said it uses automated safeguards to detect comments and images of hate speech, symbols and harassment and repeat offenders an be removed from the app.

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