Psychology Today post that claims black women are less attractive stirs controversy

A Psychology Today article on the relative attractiveness of women of different races is stirring controversy around the world.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa's findings were published under the headline, "Black Women Are Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women" in the story published May 15.

But the article stirred up anger among readers, so Psychology Today pulled it from the site.

But will they do the same to Kanazawa?

According to Color Lines, 120,000 students from the University of London Union Senate, unanimously voted for Kanazawa's dismissal.

BBC reports that Kanazawa is on a sabbatical leave.

Psychology Today covered its bases by saying in an email to NPR, "Our bloggers are credential(ed) social scientists and for this reason they are invited to post to the site on topics of their choosing. We in turn reserve the right to remove posts for any number of reasons. Because the post was not commissioned or solicited by PT (in contrast to a magazine article), there was no editorial intent to address questions of race and physical attractiveness."

Many wonder why Kanazawa would even broach such a subject. A weekly columnist for CNN, LZ Granderson, said, "I question a methodology that asks random people to judge the attractiveness of other random people without taking into account the influence of background and culture."

Others have voiced their opinion on the issue, too. Signature9 said, "Aside from the blatant racism, what we really have a problem with is the junk science behind the 'study,' and the fact that no editor at Psychology Today saw fit to withhold such a controversial article in consideration of the fact that the entire study is based on very subjective opinions."

And according to The Root, this may not be Kanazawa's first controversial piece: "He's made it his mission to oppose feminism, which he defines as 'the radical notion that women are men.'"

But some would lend credibility to Kanazawa's latest piece. Science 2.0 says that he didn't say anything that hadn't been said before. "He actually didn't say anything new, or for that matter scientifically incorrect. However politically incorrect and insensitively stated it was."