Enhancing dating images may kill your chances

Does uploading an enhanced profile picture on dating apps like Tinder increase the chance you will meet your match? It may not be the case if you are a woman. Researchers at the University of Connecticut have revealed that enhanced photos of women viewed by men increased attractiveness but lowered trustworthiness.

Women, however, found enhanced photos of men both increased attractiveness and increased trustworthiness. Trust is an important part of any relationship and it certainly plays an important role in the forging of new social bonds in the dating context.

"Yet, we found an interesting relationship between attractiveness and trust for males who were viewing female profile pictures," said lead researcher Rory McGloin. Specifically, men typically found the more beautified and, therefore, more attractive profile to also be less trustworthy.

"Our research also found that males found the beautified profile as more attractive and had a higher desire to date the person in the picture despite the lower degree of trustworthiness they reported," the authors noted.

This suggests that even when men suspect that a woman may not look exactly like she does in her profile picture, they are willing to take the risk and pursue a date with her. "In our sample, attraction seems to be more important than trust," McGloin added.

For the study, the researchers focused on 305 participants from ages 17-36. Participants were asked a series of questions to determine the profiles physical attractiveness, similarity (to the participant), trustworthiness and ultimately their desire to date.

"This finding provides an empirical highlight to the concept of cat-fishing and the larger phenomena surrounding online dating in which it is both normal and acceptable for individuals' to mislead or deceive their potential suitors," the authors concluded. The team will present their findings at the 65th annual conference of the International Communication Association in San Juan, Puerto Rico from May 21-25.