If you’ve been looking for love online and coming up short, maybe it’s not just because the guys on Tinder, OKCupid and the like are all losers and none of them realize what a beautiful, brilliant woman you are. No, maybe the reason you’ve been getting fewer winks and “Hey, what’s up?” messages from potentially attractive strangers is because you’ve got poor posture. At least, that’s what a new study out of the University of Berkeley says, anyway.
Human behavior student Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk worked with a team of researchers to analyze 144 speed dating videos from a Northwestern University event held back in 2007. The 12 male and 12 female participants paired off for four minute mini-dates, and then the participants were asked to grade their interest in each person based on a number of factors. Behavior experts also graded the videos according to how each participant ranked on a scale of romantic attraction, i.e. how much they smiled, laughed, their body language, etc.
The two other elements of the experiment included having a group 0f 800 people rate profile photo collages with some subjects’ bodies expanded to look taller and others contracted to make them look shorter, and a separate online dating survey where participants rated profile pics — some slouching and others stood straight — with a “yes” or “no.”
All three experiments came to the same conclusion: those who stand up straighter and practice good posture are way more attractive than those who slouch. It’s not entirely surprising, though, is it? It makes sense that someone who stands taller seems more confident, and we already know confidence is hot, right? So the next time you update your profile pic, stand a little straighter and you might just get lucky.
