Is this dating profile picture accurate?

How Accurate Are Female Dating Profile Pictures

Do you ever wonder how accurate the pictures are of the hot girl you are checking out on Match.com?

The Dating Profile Picture is Critical

Like me, you probably don’t even read a woman’s profile if there is no picture. It should be no surprise that countless studies show that men are more likely to look at a female’s online dating profile if the profile has a picture. So most people do indeed have a profile picture.

But….

Most people think that online daters misrepresent themselves.

On survey showed that 80% of participants registered concerns that others misrepresent themselves in their online dating profiles.

Given the importance of online dating profile pictures and the concerns regarding deception online, a study was done to examine the accuracy of photographs posted by men and women in their online dating profile pictures.

Dating Profile Picture Accuracy Study

The study examined the accuracy of online dating profile pictures. The study found that while online daters rated their photographs as relatively accurate, independent judges rated approximately 1/3 of the photographs as NOT accurate.

What the Study Examined:

1. Online dater’s self reported accuracy.

2. Independent judge’s perception of accuracy.

3. Inconsistencies in the profile photograph identified by trained specialists.

Dating Profile Pictures Put To The Test

In the study online daters were asked to rate the accuracy of their profile pictures on a scale from completely inaccurate to completely accurate, after which they were photographed in order to capture their current appearance.

Independent judges then compared the profile photograph to the current photograph of the participants.

Finally, specialists examined the dating profile photographs of the participants looking for discrepancies with the current photograph taken of the participant.

The specialists were shown the daters online dating profile picture and the lab photo and noted discrepancies such as weight, height, age, skin, hair style, eyes, nose, teeth, etc… or photo retouching (airbrushing), cropping, or even determining if the profile pictures were taken by a professional photographer.

Dating Profile Picture Accuracy Results

In the study, the participants judged their own dating profiles as very accurate; on a scale of 1 – 5.

Women viewed their photos an average of 4.43, meaning women thought their dating profile pictures were extremely accurate.

Men in case you were wondering had an average of 4.33.

The independent judges who compared the profile photos with the lab photos rated women significantly lower than males. Women had an average of 2.98 while men had 3.50.

Thus, the independent judges rated the female photographs as less accurate than the female daters themselves did to their own photos.

The trained specialists judged the female photographs to be less accurate than male photographs as well.

Female photographs were more likely to be older, to be retouched, or taken by a professional photographer, and to contain inconsistencies, including changes in hair style and skin quality.

The photographs of the females contained an average of 3.00 discrepancies while men had an average of 1.33 discrepancies.

Finally, female photographs were determine, on average, to be 17 months old. Men’s online dating profile pictures were on average were 6 months old.

Are Female Dating Profile Pictures Accurate

According to the study, the Answer is NO.

The study shows that women do indeed misrepresent themselves in pictures. Men do as well but to a lesser degree. In the study, females didn’t view their photographs as inaccurate while the independent judges did. It just goes to show you that people tend to see themselves in a different light.

From my experience in online dating, I always noticed that women would use the same profile pictures year after year.

I have had my fair share of women who looked nothing like their dating profile picture.

One time I e-mailed a woman on Match.com. From a physical standpoint she was very athletic and appeared to be beautiful. We finally met and instantly I could see she had bad skin from spending a lot of her free time outdoors. She loved beach volleyball and played it all the time. I could tell that she had touched up her pictures somehow and had misrepresented herself. Needless to say, there was no second date.

I would say it’s safe to assume that the woman you are interested in on Match.com, PlentyofFish, or whatever dating site you are on, is probably misrepresenting herself somewhat in her online dating profile pictures.

When it gets to the point that you exchange numbers, one way to get a recent picture is to say, “Text me a picture so I can add it as your contact picture“.

Feel free to share any thoughts you have on this topic below.

References:
Hancock, J. T. and Toma, C. L. (2009), Putting Your Best Face Forward: The Accuracy of Online Dating Photographs. Journal of Communication, 59: 367–386. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01420.