The blog for OkCupid.com recently looked at over 7,000 profile pictures of men and women on the dating site, and compared various poses with the number of new contacts made each month. If you’re using a dating site you might want to read through their findings and fine-tune your presentation.

Some examples: Men, don’t show your abs if you’re over 20 years of age–it will backfire on you. Women, the older you are the better off you’ll be if you show some cleavage. Men, don’t smile in your pic, and make sure you’re staring at something out of frame. Women, smile and flirt directly into the camera. However, for both sexes your odds of a new contact leading to an actual conversation is best if your photo shows you doing something interesting, posing with an animal, or traveling.

I have no idea if this scales to same sex dating sites.

“The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures” [oktrends]

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