Plenty of Fish Picture Experiment

Introduction

Recently I decided to test out a theory by my friends Race and Kelly on the Plenty of Fish dating site. The concept is simple. Basically it states that the more quality pictures you have visible on your online profile, the more value you display and thus the more dates you will be able to receive. For example, if you applied this concept to plentyoffish.com then it would mean that a person who displays the maximum 8 pictures in their profile is more likely to create attraction than a person who displays only one picture.

Luckily, POF comes with an easy way to measure a profile's attraction. If we can measure the attraction of a profile and we know how many pictures those same profiles display, it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with some type of measure between the quantity of pictures displayed and the level of attraction.

How do we measure attraction on a Plenty of Fish profile? Simply by looking at the number times a profile has been "favorited." When someone favorites you, that is an indicator of interest or attraction. So, we can assume that profiles with a high number of favorites should be considered highly attractive individuals and profiles with a low number of favorites would be considered less attractive.

Procedure

The first step in this experiment was to gather all the data. I went through the PlentyofFish site and selected random men and women from across the country and recorded both the quantity of pictures and number of times favorited for each profile. In all, I collected data from approximately 200 sets of male profiles and 200 sets of female profiles.

I then sorted each data set (one for each gender) by the quantity of pictures displayed and took an average of the "Favorites" for each quantity group.

I then graphed the correlation between the quantity of profile pictures and the # times favorited.

Data

Click to view all data in spreadsheet format

Results

Looking at the male graph, it is pretty clear that there is a positive correlation between quantity of profile pictures and attraction. It shows that for each picture, attraction level or "favorites" will on average increase by the same amount.



The female graph, however, is a bit more crazy. There is certainly an upward trend in # times favorited but has a few erratic swings with a big dip at 5 pictures, a giant spike at 6 pictures and then dropping again at 7 and 8 pictures.



Discussion

This isn't the most scientific experiment and there is certainly several opportunities for bias to occur in the data results. A few possible flaws are as follows:

• It is possible that men and women who are perceived at being better looking may be more comfortable displaying more pictures of themselves. This would produce bias in the data as better looking people who display more pictures would naturally receive a higher number of favorites just off of looks alone.

• The range of # times favorited in the women's data is much greater than that of the men's data. Some women's profiles swing into the triple digits with the highest having over 500 favorites. These wild upswings for some women will have an impact on the average for those particular picture groups. This would explain for the big spikes in the graph.

Conclusion

There appears to be a positive correlation between number of profile pictures displayed and attraction level though certainly not proven. Also, this only applies to an average profile, as it is clear that some profiles with many pictures may still be viewed as unattractive and profiles with few pictures could be seen as highly attractive.

I've added in the original Plenty of Fish data sets above, so if there is anyone else out there with a better statistics background who'd like to take a stab at analyzing the data let me know.

How To Find Your Best Dating Profile Pictures

There is a feature on the Plenty of Fish dating site that many people overlook. This one tool, used properly, can help you maximize the attractiveness of your profile pictures. What is this great tool? It's the picture rating system.

When you go into your 'images' section onto Plenty of Fish, there is a little check box next to each of your pictures that says "rate image." By checking this box you are allowing other people to give that picture a ranking from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most attractive. This one tool can help you create a profile that will vastly improve your chances of attracting more potential online dates.

Here's what you do:

• Go into your 'images' section of your profile and check of the 'rate image' box next to each of your pictures.
• The next step is easy, simply wait about a week, or enough time that enough people can rate your pictures.
• Next go into your own profile and next to the "Rate My Picture" line in the top right corner, click on the 'Vote Breakdown' link
• Once in your Vote Breakdown section, you will see some bar graphs with various statistic information
• Naturally this shows you on average and by demographic how people find your pictures to be attractive or not
• If you rate highly on a picture (7-10) then you know you have keeper, but if you rate low on a picture (below 5) then it's probably a good idea to get rid of it and swap it out for a new one.
• Also, be sure to pay attention to the breakdown by demographic. Sometimes, you may rate low in one group and high in the other. If you aren't interested in the group that rated you low and are interested in the group that rated you high, then it is still beneficial to keep that picture even though your average overall rating is somewhere in the middle.

So, as you can see, this is a pretty powerful tool for your Plenty of Fish online dating profile. Using this one technique you can easily maximize the attractiveness of your overall profile.

7 Plenty of Fish Profile Picture Mistakes

Creating a seductive profile online is probably one of the most important aspects to Plenty of Fish dating. Within the profile though, the pictures section is by far one of the most important and often most neglected feature. Here we will talk about some of the seven most over looked mistakes while posting pictures on your profile.

1. Not Having a Picture

This is pretty obvious and it's still surprising that there are people who think they are capable of attracting perfect strangers online without having a simple picture of themselves. Basically, if you don't have at least one picture, you are 100% wasting your time.

2. Pictures Without a Shirt

This applies mostly to the guys, however, I doubt women could get away with a topless picture on a legitimate dating site. Regardless, guys, keep your shirts on. Yes, we're all impressed with your big muscles, but posing/flexing for the camera is making you look like a tool and a douche bag. Amongst all my research and surveys with women who date online, I have yet to find one that thinks this is a good idea.

3. Not Having a Good Head Shot

This is actually a requirement for your main picture on the Plenty of Fish dating site. The reason is that people want to actually see a good close up of you, rather than a group shot or some stick figure standing in the distance. Even if you think you're ugly, having a good close up picture is good, because it shows you are honest. One of the biggest complaints in online dating is meeting people in real life that don't look like their pictures. These people who misrepresent themselves are obviously not getting a second date, which makes all that effort worthless in the end. Better to just stick with your ugly mug for the sake of efficiency.

4. Pictures With Your Ex Cropped Out

These are the pictures where you can clearly see the ex cropped out of the picture. I don't think this one is that big of a deal if you are really short on quality pictures. However, if you are serious about raking in the hotties on Plenty of Fish then why not just get some better pictures - don't you own a digital camera? Another thought is to simply leave the other person in the picture as means of social proof. Who cares if your ex is in the picture? I think it shows that you are open and don't care how people judge you. If you're worried about privacy for the other person then simply put a black bar across their eyes.

5. Self Portrait In the Mirror

You know what I'm talking about. The people who take their own picture with a cellphone while standing in front of the bathroom mirror. People please, this is just lame. First, it makes you look like you don't do anything, because you don't have any pictures of yourself and it makes you look like you don't have any friends. Do not do this.

6. Not Having Enough Pictures

Recently I did a little research where I browsed through 100 random male profiles and 100 random female profiles. For each profile, I recorded in a spreadsheet two sets of data: the number pictures shown and the number of times that profile was given "favorite" status. The results turned out to what I expected. Regardless of looks or written content, on average, the profiles with more pictures (6-8) had more favorites given to them. The profiles with less pictures (only 1 or 2) had little to no favorites given. Essentially, the two sets of data are directly proportional. So, we can conclude that the more pictures you show, the more interest you will receive in your online dating profile.

7. Not Diversifying Your Pictures

One observation I noticed in my research from number 6 is those profiles with 6 - 8 pictures, some did good while others did extremely well. The difference was that the pictures that were exceptional, had a diverse set of pictures. Conversely, the pictures that had 6 shots of the same thing only fared as well as profiles with 1 or 2 pictures.

A good example is one guy who had 8 pictures shown and was given favorite status by 130 women!! By far the highest number I've seen for a male dating profile. So what set his pictures apart from everyone else. He basically showed, through his pictures how awesome and exciting his life was. He had pictures of him doing the following: skydiving, riding a motorcycle, snowboarding, surfing, sitting by the fire in a camp setting, playing with his dogs, and one simple but clear head shot as his main picture. He barely had anything written in his profile either, but he didn't need to, he displayed his exciting life through visual proof!! Think about it folks.


Hopefully these seven tips of "what not to do" will help you avoid some common pitfalls for Plenty of Fish dating and other online dating services. If you have any to add please feel free to write it in the comments section.