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| Source Boomboxtix.com |
The creation of online dating has revolutionized the way we meet our partners. Since your photo acts as the first impression of perspective matches, it is vital to the success of your dating profile. Yourphoto has the ability to either drive away Ms. Right or Mr. Right or generate enough interest to look more into the profile.
There are two types of profile pictures that the majority of users fall into: Conservative or Extroverted. Both categories have their merits and have both positive and negative merits. Individuals who created a more traditional dating profile were perceived to be more trustworthy and agreeable. In a profile that people were more extroverted allowed other individuals to show some of their more desirable characteristics as well as features. This study was conducted by choosing a sample of 65 undergraduates and creating a dating platform in which the results were measured.
Online dating has grown more every year and it is said that if this trend continues, it will be the main way in which we discover our romantic partners in the future. Expressing yourself initially through text and a photo effectively has now been more important skill to possess and utilize. Displaying yourself in a traditional manner by dressing more conservatively and by saying some of your hobbies are intellectually based made individuals believe you were more interpersonally attractive. This statement is backed up by the Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT), this theory investigates an individuals trustworthiness. In Addition, the photo and text are needed to compliment each other in order to help the user back up their claims. This type of convergence shows source credibility. This is an essential component for online dating. Your photo and description will always be the others person's first impression of you.
Open profiles that share more personal information, tend to have more individuals interested in them. This was seen to be more strategic than the traditional method since they showed photos that are more provocative as well. The user creating the profile can make their profile more socially popular by displaying hobbies such as sports and partying. Other factors that play a role, besides appearance and interest, are the location in which someone lives. For example some one living in the city or in the country could appeal to a particular audience more than the other. By putting out more information like that in an open profile, it allowed the person to “shop” more for suitable candidates unlike the ones with a closed profile.
In order to support this research and show validity of the results of the study, the participants were told to create two profiles for themselves: one being traditional and the other more open. Individuals were then asked to use a scale to measure interpersonal attraction, trustworthiness and the validity of specific visual as well as textual manipulations of each profile.
The open profiles proved to be seen in a more positive light in seven out of twelve measured responses when compared against the traditional profile. The two major differences that were measured was that they had more active daters seeking them. They also had more individuals following their social profile built on the website. The traditional profile was more favored when measured against trustworthiness, interpersonal attraction and being more agreeable than the open profile.
Since this study was only conducted by a sample of college students, it cannot speak for all of the potential daters who visit these sorts of websites. Individuals who are well into their in their 30’s and 40s tend to search online for individuals who are seeking for longer lasting relationships. A younger crowd tends to use the website more for “hook ups”. This difference has been the reason for websites such as Eharmony and Tinder. These applications were created and target a more specific demographic of individuals. People often times focus mainly on one of the types of profiles stated previously. Since there are websites that have been created for many different types of niches in regards to dating such as Muslim matchmaker, farmers only and to Christian mingle, more studies can be done to see if the results are universal.
Since online dating allows you to have a quick glimpse of a person prior to conversing with them, it might be the reason in which there are more individuals meeting online as well as marrying. According to John Cacioppo from the University of Chicago, from 2005-2012 there has been more than one-third of individuals who have met their significant other online and have gotten married. When they compared the divorce rate between couples who met online and offline they saw that it was lower at 5.96% for online while couples who met offline was at 7.67 P< 0.002. When they measured satisfaction as well for couples, they found that again couples who met online had a positive higher rating than those who met offline.
Now that a creating of an app or website is far easier than before, more servers focusing on online dating may start arising due to the success of previous platforms. The use of platforms such as Tinder, Plenty of Fish, and Eharmony have been growing every year and are expected to keep growing which shows how technology is leading our society into a new age.
