OkCupid Defends Use of Controversial “Low IQs” Question on Dating Survey

A learning disability activist has started a petition to remove a question about people with low IQs from OKCupid.

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Most OkCupid members have probably been asked “Would the world be a better place if people with low IQs were not allowed to reproduce?” by the site, which uses questions like this to figure out how compatible its users are. Now, people with learning disabilities and their advocates are taking a stand against this question, claiming it permits ableist belief systems. 

The #NotOkCupid hashtag started trending this week after the charity Mencap, which advocates for people with learning disabilities, published a blog post about OkCupid's question. The post revealed that Ciara Lawrence, a Mencap campaigner with a learning disability, had started a petition to remove that question. 

"As someone with a learning disability who is married and thinking about maybe having children in the future, I find this question inappropriate, offensive, and discriminatory," she said in the blog post. "It should not matter who you are when you have children, just that you will love them and do everything you can to raise them in the right way."

Mencap spokesperson Amy Clarke, who also has a learning disability, shared her thoughts on the subject as well. "By asking the question, they are making it seem like it is OK to say yes, which it is not," she said." If they had asked the same question about people of different races or sexuality, there would be outrage, and it should be the same for people with a learning disability."

OkCupid does, in fact, have questions surrounding racial differences in intelligence and whether homosexuality is a sin, though these questions don't specifically ask who should be allowed to reproduce.  

Twitter users have been joining in to call out OkCupid for ableism.

OkCupid, however, is defending the question as a way to help its users avoid dating ableist people.

“Our question system is designed to help potential matches understand the interests and values of other users," a spokesperson for the site told Complex through email early Friday. "Questions range from mundane to provocative, and they specifically allow you to determine your potential compatibility with someone else and to avoid people whose viewpoints you strongly disagree with.”

Ciara Lawrence did not immediately return Complex's request for comment.

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