Want to Be Successful in Online Dating? Then Fix Your Postures, Study Finds

According to two studies literally extending yourself can make you more attractive in online dating.

Study led by UC Berkeley discovered that people who use more expansive, dominant gestures are most likely to get a second look.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It shows that for the postures of both men and women, bigger is better – and offer some insight into why those gestures are so attractive.

First impressions are particularly important in the contemporary dating world when people meet online, said Vacharkulksemsuk, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley.

With apps like Tinder, first impressions are so fast with split second decisions. Yet, humans are pretty good at making judgments on a potential mate in a fraction of a second.

“Physical features, such as pupil size, gaze directionality, eye color, facial symmetry, and nonverbal displays, are encoded by human minds in as little as 39 ms,” the researchers pointed out. “Some of these cues (i.e., a direct vs. an averted gaze) influence decisions to pursue or pass over a potential romantic partner when rapidly observing photographs of models in a computer task.”

In the first experiment, researchers looked into nonverbal body language interactions, along with nonverbal cues of affiliation (e.g, smiles, laughs, head nods) among 144 female-male speed-dates which lasted 4 minutes. After each date, participants would scoretheir date and showed whether they would like to meet the person again. They found an open, expansive nonverbal pose expressed during the date significantly predicted the chance of getting a "yes" response. Nonverbal affiliative behaviors did not show the same effects.

"For every single unit increase of expansiveness on the scale, that person was 76 percent more likely to get a 'yes' response from their speed-dating partner," Vacharkulksemsuk said.

In another part of the study, the researchers analyzed thousands of reactions to photos of the opposite sex on a mobile dating app. Some profile photos showed love seekers appearing open and welcoming, and others showed them "contractive," or seeming closed.

Among females, more than fifty per cent the "hits" went to women with more open postures. Although men got fewer hits overall -- because women are much more selective than men, according to the resesearchers -- almost nine out of 10 hits were in response to an expansive photo.

"Profiles featuring expansive photographs were 27 percent more likely to elicit a 'yes' response from a given participant," the researchers shows.

The study appears in the March 28 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.