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Key points
- Women tend to assess men not only on physical qualities but also on things like intelligence and career.
- Text in dating profiles influences attractiveness ratings differently for men than for women.
- For men, the inclusion of text moderates their attractiveness ratings of female dating profiles.
Success in online dating starts by constructing a profile that attracts interest and then possible matches from other users. One consideration in dating profile construction is how many photographs to use and also whether to include text information to describe ourselves. Evolutionary psychology would predict that when men view dating profiles of women, it is the photograph that provides most of the information they require to make a judgment of a potential partner’s attractiveness. This is because men tend to base their judgments of partner suitability almost solely on visual cues. However, women tend to assess men not only on physical qualities but also on characteristics such as degree of commitment, intelligence, and career prospects—in other words, information that may only be conveyed in written form. Therefore, the addition of a text description would appear to be a more important aspect for men to include in their profiles.
Sex differences can also be found in the ways in which men and women process information. Typically, men are more strategic in their processing compared to women and use more mental shortcuts in arriving at decisions. Women on the other hand engage in more comprehensive and thoughtful processing of information compared to men. Therefore, situations where comprehensive processing of information is compromised to some extent, such as when using an app on a mobile device, would possibly be more likely to influence information processing and decision-making in women compared to men.
Taking into account the sex differences outlined above, a group of researchers from the University of Negev in Israel set out to investigate whether the inclusion of text in a dating profile and also the device used to view it actually made a difference to daters’ judgments regarding attractiveness ratings, and also whether these attractiveness judgments differed between men and women (Fink, Ilany-Tzur, Yam, & Sokhina, 2023).
In their research, they presented a sequence of 12 preconstructed dating profiles to participants in their study. Half of the participants were assigned to a condition where verbal information was included in the profiles they viewed, whereas the other half of the participants were assigned to a condition where no verbal content was included. Within each of these conditions, half of the participants were instructed to view the dating profiles using a mobile device whereas the other half were instructed to view the dating profiles on a computer. Participants then rated each profile for attractiveness.
Sex Differences
Firstly, the study found a major sex difference, with overall attractiveness ratings given by men higher than those given by women.
The researchers also found that the inclusion of text in dating profiles did make a difference to attractiveness ratings and that this was indeed different for men and women. For women, the inclusion of text had the effect of increasing the attractiveness ratings of the male profiles they viewed, while the effect of the inclusion of a text description for men was to decrease their assessments of the attractiveness ratings of the female profiles they viewed. Therefore, the inclusion of a text description had a positive effect on male profiles but a negative effect on female profiles.
This finding is explained by the researchers in evolutionary terms, in which the inclusion of text information detailing ambition, career prospects, and commitment had a positive effect on women’s judgments of attractiveness. Such information is particularly important for women in mate selection. However, for men, the inclusion of text acted as an "anchor" moderating their attractiveness ratings of the female profiles they observed. When men relied on female profile photographs alone, they tended to overestimate them on levels of attractiveness. Overall, then, the message here is simple: The inclusion of textual information along with photographs enhances men’s dating profiles more than women’s profiles.
Type of Device
When the researchers examined the type of device participants used to view dating profiles, they found that using a mobile device in contrast to a computer changed the effect of the inclusion of text information in the dating profile. More specifically, when participants used a computer, it was women who increased their ratings of attractiveness for the profiles they viewed, whereas men decreased their ratings of attractiveness for the profiles they viewed. However, this sex difference disappeared for both men and women when they viewed profiles on a mobile device.
This finding supports the idea that the capacity for comprehensive processing generally found in women is compromised when using a mobile device rather than a computer. The way in which profiles are presented on mobile devices somewhat forces us to pay more attention to visual information over verbal information, meaning that both men and women have to process it in a similar way.
The study outlined here has clear implications for the design of online dating platforms. For example, the design of dating sites and apps may need to focus more on sex differences. The study also provides information on the effects of screen size on how users process information. Similarly, users of online dating services should be mindful that men and women are likely to utilise different information processing strategies depending on the type of device they use, which ultimately may influence the dating decisions they make.
Facebook image: Stokkete/Shutterstock
References
Fink, L., Ilany-Tzur, N., Yam, H. & Sokhina, S. (2023). Do women and men click differently? Mobile devices mitigate gender differences in online dating. Information & Management. 60.
