When men try to select an attractive picture of themselves for a dating profile, they sometimes end up sabotaging themselves. Here's an explanation that will make woman go "duh," but might be useful for men. See, men are visual creatures, and assume that women are, too. Yeah, not so much. When men look at a woman's dating profile, they want to see someone attractive. When women look at a picture, they try to glean information about that person from what they see. An example is a fellow who posted pictures of his muscular physique, but found more success when he covered up.
Dr Claire Hart is Associate Professor of Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Southampton. She suggests that women aren’t judging the content of these photos, but their implications instead. “Research suggests that women (and indeed men) find well proportioned muscular men more attractive. Based on our ancestral past, signs of physical strength would be linked with an increased chance of survival,” she explains.
“[But] without knowing much else about that person other than what is presented on their dating profile, you may make certain attributes about them which negatively impacts their desirability,” she continues. “For example, how much time do they devote to maintaining their musculature body? Would they do this at the expense of spending time with you? Do they have narcissistic tendencies? You might not stop to find out.”
In other words, how a man chooses to present himself in a picture means more than his basic attractiveness. At least for the most part. Read more about this phenomenon at Refinery29. -via Digg
