Researchers claim multiracial daters are considered more desirable than other racial groups.

Celeste Vaughan Curington from the University of Massachusetts said the most interesting finding they gathered show that white-minority multiracial daters are more preferred over white and non-white daters.

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Researchers decided to call this the "bonus effect," which they believe has never been heard of in the field of sociology.

According to their study, white and Asian men view Asian-white women more favorably than other groups.

Asian and Hispanic women find Asian-white and Hispanic-white men to be extremely attractive, the study showed.

Curington said although it's tempting to try to fit multiracial people into a single position in the existing racial hierarchy of desirability, the bonus effect demonstrates this isn't possible.

In America, scholarly conversation on multiraciality is dominated by the concept of the "one drop rule." Researchers found no support for this theory.

The one drop rule states that white-minority multiracial persons are viewed the same as minorities.

Researchers found that honorary whiteness in the form of "white equivalence" and "multiracial inbetweeness" is the most frequent way both white men, white women and minority groups were categorized as white-minority multiracial group.

A preference of multiraciality is closely akin to their preference for lightness or whiteness, Currington said.

Popular media representation of mixed-race people as exotic and sexually appealing probably influenced this dater preference.

Researchers believe this finding provides scientists a better understanding of the social meaning of multiraciality in the post-civil rights era in the United States.

It also tells researchers how demographic changes in racial identification operate at the level of everyday interactions.

The study was based on 2003-2010 data from one of the largest dating websites in the U.S.

Researchers focused on initial messages sent between heterosexual men and women with Asian, African-American, Hispanic and American heritage.