Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who has the Fairest Profile Pic of All?

| Feb 04, 2010 | 5 comments

Welcome friends, to the age of digital narcissism. You can do just about anything on the Net these days and the face with which you do it becomes crucial to avatar maintenance (no not the blockbuster, the digital representation of one’s self). So what if you’re looking for love, as many of us are? And what if you’re looking for love online?

Well then, step right up and view Exhibit A, “The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures” a study done by OKCupid.com, one of your run-o-the-mill online dating sites, no offense Cupid, Ok?

7000 pictures were analyzed seeing just what we find attractive in a potential online mate. Those photographs studied were of people with “average attractiveness,” a metric I’m not sure is extremely qualifiable, but hey, I’ll leave my criticism at the door.

Well turns out that guys really get their CPU’s up when they see a profile pic of the ever so emo “MySpace shot,” (no word if over-excessive eyeliner correlates to this statistic). Men like to see self-portraits of women, pictures of women lying in bed, and finally outdoor pictures.

And women like abs. Though this abdominal affinity wanes with age and flab. Same with cleavage. The older the pair, the less men care. I guess people are just shallow.

Kind of like judging a person by its profile picture.

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Emily D Stine

About the Author

Emily Stine (@emilydstine) is a grab-bag full of fun. Travel poet blogger chic, Sci-Fi Twitter pilot (@LunaCalypsus) and Facebook anthropologist to boot. She spent two years as an undergrad studying the mores of Facebook culture. Onetime PhD student, tech writer, and nowadays a full time researcher and a part-time Master’s student; she's just your token millennial blogger. What else is new? Oh yea, she kind of likes to write about stuff. http://emmyappleseed.tumblr.com
  • http://intensedebate.com/people/mobloso Travis Wright

    So, I need to have a profile pic, outdoors… with my shirt off, showing off my "flabs" It's not a six-pack… but a case of beer. :-)

    Sweet article!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/mobloso Travis Wright

    Make sure to throw in some cleavage for good measure!

  • http://twitter.com/emilydstine @emilydstine

    And I need to take a picture of myself, seductively emo-like, in bed, next to a window, with a tree. They guys will be drooling!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/ZenInsight ZenInsight

    Unless you are in Japan. Then your profile pic (Shoko Nakagawa) can be like this one (especially the lower right)

    http://jwherring.com/TOWM/wp-content/uploads/2009…

    and dudes will flock to you.

  • http://twitter.com/emilydstine @emilydstine

    Oh my god, that's hilarious!!