What Men and Women Put in Their Dating Profile Pictures
Men and women build dating profiles from different raw material, and the difference is bigger than either group seems to realize. Men are ten times more likely to turn up in a suit. Women are ten times more likely to turn up in swimwear. Both wear sunglasses at exactly the same rate, and almost nobody in either group includes a pet.
Those numbers come from 3,000 photos that real daters uploaded to a tool we built, and most of the gaps they expose point the same way: the thing people reach for instinctively is usually not the thing the research supports.
Meeting online is now the most common way American couples get together. It overtook meeting through friends around 2013, and by 2017 39% of heterosexual couples met online against 2% in 1995. That makes a profile picture less of a formality than it used to be. For a lot of people it is the entire first impression.
What We Measured
In 2019 we ran 3,000 photos submitted to Snappr's Dating Photo Analyzer through our computer vision models and scored each one on the attributes that dating platforms and academic research associate with performance: facial expression, clothing, eyewear, the presence of a pet, framing and light. The tool is still free and still running, so you can put your own photo through the same scoring.
Everything below is split by the gender each uploader selected. The sample skews toward people motivated enough to seek feedback on their photo, which probably makes it a flattering picture of the dating pool rather than a harsh one.
Smiling: 35.6% for Men, 47.6% for Women
We scored every photo from 0 (not smiling) to 1 (a full smile). Men averaged 35.6%. Women averaged 47.6%.
The obvious reading is that men should smile more. The research points the other way. In a study titled Happy Guys Finish Last, smiling measurably reduced men's attractiveness ratings among heterosexual women, while it raised women's ratings among heterosexual men. For once the men are accidentally right, and every woman who has ever been told to smile more now has a reply.
Swimwear: Women Are 10x More Likely
Only 4.8% of women use a swimwear photo as their main picture, and just 0.4% of men do. Both figures are low, but the ratio between them is roughly ten to one.
Analysis of OkCupid's own data found that photos showing more skin performed better for both sexes. Which leaves the 99.6% of men keeping their shirts on in an awkward spot. Nobody is arguing the beach shot belongs first in the sequence, but skipping it entirely means skipping something that demonstrably works.
Sunglasses: The Mistake Both Sexes Make Equally
8.0% of women and 8.1% of men wear sunglasses in their main profile photo. It is the only attribute we measured where the sexes are indistinguishable.
It is also the easiest thing on this list to fix. Eye contact is most of what a face photograph does, and sunglasses remove it. If one of your photos hides your eyes, it should not be the first one.
Pets: Rare, and Undersold
Pets appear in 1.8% of women's photos and 1.2% of men's. Women are around 50% more likely to include one, but both numbers are close to zero.
A survey of 1,210 Match.com users published in Anthrozöos found that women judge a potential partner by how they relate to animals far more than men do, outscoring men on eight of eleven measures, and that dogs work better than cats as a signal. For men in particular, a dog in the frame is doing more work than a second gym mirror selfie.
Suits: 10.4% of Men, 1.0% of Women
Just over one man in ten wears a suit in his dating profile picture. One woman in a hundred does.
The same OkCupid analysis found casual clothing outperformed formalwear for men. One man in ten is leading with a photo taken for an entirely different purpose. A suit says promotion, not Saturday, and if the only flattering picture you own came out of a work headshot session, the fix is a new photo rather than a reused one.
What the Gaps Add Up To
Put the five findings next to each other and a pattern shows up. On every attribute where the research has a clear answer, the larger group is on the wrong side of it.
- Men overdress and underexpose. Ten percent in suits, almost none in anything casual enough to read as a weekend.
- Women smile more than the evidence requires, which costs them nothing, while men smile less and are inadvertently right.
- Both hide their eyes at the same rate, and that is the one fix available to everyone today at no cost.
- Almost nobody uses a pet, which is the widest gap between what works and what people actually do.
The best dating profile pictures are not the ones that try hardest. They are the ones where the face is visible, the clothing matches the life being advertised, and nothing in the frame is working against the person in it.
Framing, Angle and Light
The rest of what separates a photo that works from one that does not is mechanical, and none of it depends on how you look.
Which Side of Your Face
The left side of the face is generally rated more appealing, and a slightly raised camera angle scores better than a level one.
How Close to Stand
Photos do best when the face is clearly readable but most of the body is still in frame. An aspect ratio between 3:4 and 4:3 holds that comfortably. Too tight and it reads as a passport photo; too wide and nobody can tell which person you are.
Light and Color
Balanced beats extreme on every axis we scored: sharpness, brightness and saturation. Soft daylight from the side does more for a photo than any filter, and it is free.
How Many Photos a Profile Needs
One photo is not a profile. The apps are built around a sequence, and leaving slots empty reads as either low effort or something withheld.
A workable set is four to six photos that each do a different job: one clear head and shoulders where your eyes are visible, one full length, one that shows you doing something you actually do, and one with other people in it so you look like someone with a life. Six near-identical selfies is one photo repeated six times.
What to Leave Out
- Sunglasses in the first photo. 8% of profiles do it and it removes the single most important feature of a face photo.
- Group shots in the lead slot. They are useful later in the sequence and a liability first, because nobody should have to work out which one you are.
- The work headshot. It is the most common misuse of a good photo. The lighting and the clothing both say office.
- Heavy filters. Our scoring penalized oversaturation, and so does anyone who eventually meets you.
- Photos more than a couple of years old. The mismatch is discovered on the first date, which is the worst possible moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Makes a Good Dating Profile Picture?
A photo where your eyes are visible, your face is readable at thumbnail size, and your clothing matches the life you are describing. In our analysis of 3,000 photos the most common avoidable faults were sunglasses, worn by 8% of both men and women, and formalwear, worn by 10.4% of men when the research favors casual clothing.
How Many Photos Should a Dating Profile Have?
Four to six, each doing a different job: a clear head and shoulders shot, a full length, one that shows an activity you genuinely do, and one with other people in it. Repeating the same angle six times uses the slots without adding information.
Are Group Photos Bad for Dating Apps?
Not in general, but they are a poor first photo. A viewer who cannot immediately tell which person you are will usually move on rather than work it out. Use one later in the sequence instead.
Should Men Smile in Dating Profile Pictures?
The research says less than you would expect. A study titled Happy Guys Finish Last found that smiling reduced men's attractiveness ratings among heterosexual women while raising women's ratings among heterosexual men. In our data men already average 35.6% of a full smile against 47.6% for women.
Are Selfies Good for Dating Apps?
A selfie is fine as one photo in a set and weak as the lead. Arm's length forces a close crop and an unflattering angle, and it tells the viewer nothing about your height, build or surroundings.
Where to Start
So, gentlemen: lose the suit, borrow a dog, and carry on not smiling. That is three of the five findings handled at no cost. Everyone else can start by taking the sunglasses off, which is the only fix here that applies equally to all 3,000 photos we looked at.
To see how your current photo scores on the same attributes, put it through the free Dating Photo Analyzer. If what you need is a better photo rather than a better pick from the ones you have, Snappr photographers shoot portrait sessions in 491 cities and you can see fixed rates on the pricing page before you book. Our guide to what to wear on a shoot applies here too, with the caveat that everything it says about suits runs the other way.
