If you thought posting revealing or sexy photos was the way to go on your online dating profile, you might need to rethink your strategy as a new study has revealed that people with sexy photos on their dating profiles are often perceived as incompetent and unlikeable.
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Conducted by researchers from the University of Arizona, people posting such images on their dating profiles are also perceived to be someone who isn’t ready for a long-term relationship.
For the study, the team asked 262 students to evaluate what they were told will be a new dating website, with a few mock-up profiles. The description of the mock-up profiles was left neutral, however, half of the profiles had rather sexualised photos — photos with revealing clothing or guys showing off their physique etc — whereas the other half didn’t.
262 Heterosexual participants were randomly shown two sexualised and two non-sexualised profiles of the opposite sex.
Participants rated those with sexy photos to be less likeable as well as less likely to be ready for a serious long-term relationship. In fact, male profiles with sexy photos were judged more harshly compared to female profiles with sexy photos.
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Authors concluded stating, “Our results found that sexualized dating profiles incurred social costs (e.g., less perceived task competence, less liking and social attractiveness) and were also at an increased likelihood of experiencing sexual cyber dating abuse than were their nonsexualized counterparts.”
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