Should you smile in your online dating pictures?

With a lot of contradictory research, what should you believe?

Here are a few things to consider:

1. You come off as more likable

According to this article in Bustle:

Smiling can also win over a potential date. ‘A smile says that you are a positive, open person,’ relationship coach Melinda Carver tells Bustle. ‘It’s a signal to others that you are friendly.’

Because smiling is so important when it comes to finding ~the one~, dating app Coffee Meets Bagel, in honor of World Smile Day, analyzed the profile photos of roughly 300 of their members to see which types of smiles garnered the most ‘likes.’ What they found was that not only does smiling in your profile photo make a huge difference, but how you smile also plays in your favor (or against it), too.

2. Maybe eye contact matters more than a smile

According to this article in the Providence Journal:

The study shows that it?s not the smile that necessarily makes women?s photos more appealing; rather, it?s the eye contact. As a woman looking into the camera, whether smiling or making said ?flirty-face,? you get a much better response than when you?re not looking into the camera. Interestingly enough, men had a better response when both smiling and not smiling ? but not looking directly into the camera. Is that because women want a man with a little mystery? What is he looking at anyway? The world may never know.

3. Or is eye contact intimidating?

According to this article in LiveScience:

Photos in which men were looking away from the camera and not smiling had the most success in getting messages from possible dates.

‘If you’re looking straight at a camera for a male, that can be intimidating to a woman,’ Yagan said. ‘But if someone is looking off past you that can, in many ways, be less threatening and more approachable.’

For the ladies, while a smile isn’t a turn-off, the results suggested she should look straight at the camera with a pouty-face smile. And in fact women seem to be in the know, as they smile almost twice as often as men and make that flirty face four times as often.

Here is a TSB article related to the subject:?https://www.tsbmag.com/2017/12/08/the-5-types-of-tinder-pictures-guaranteed-to-make-her-swipe-right/