What Your Dating Profile Pic Can Do For You

Hey, online daters. Guess what? You can have all of the dating experience in the world, you could be the nicest guy or gal around, you could have the same exact interests as the person you’re attempting to date … but it all means nothing if you have a bad photo. Your profile pic matters!

Think of it like this: You can go to a job interview with the greatest resume in the world. But if you have an arm growing out of your head, you’re not getting that job.

Well, the folks at OK Cupid have put together some fascinating research regarding users profile pics. There, they analyze the four big myths of user profile pics. Myths like:

– Is it better to smile?
– Is it okay to use a webcam to take your photo?
– Should guys keep their shirts on?
– Do you have to show your face?

For example, here’s their findings regarding using a low-grade (or “MySpace shot”) style of photography to take your profile pic:

In terms of getting new messages, the MySpace Shot is the single most effective photo type for women. We at first thought this was just because, typically, you can kind of see down the girl?s shirt with the camera at that angle?indeed, that seems to be the point of shot in the first place?so we excluded all cleavage-showing shots from the pool and ran the numbers again. No change: it?s still the best shot; better, in fact, than straight-up boob pics (more on those later).

And this is just part of the research; it’s pretty intense. So yeah, it’s really worth a read.