Unlocking the Recipe for Online Dating Success: Balancing Novelty and Appropriateness in Profiles
Crafting the Perfect Dating Profile: The Key Ingredients Revealed
Have you ever created a profile on a dating app? You’ve likely put effort into selecting the perfect profile picture, but what about the text portion beneath it? That snippet holds immense power in shaping how potential matches perceive you. Recent research by Van der Zanden and Schouten delves into the world of online dating profile texts. Their study, “Creativity, Expectancy Violations, and Impression Formation: Effects of Novelty and Appropriateness in Online Dating Profile Texts,” investigates how these texts’ creativity, specifically concerning novelty and appropriateness, influences perceptions of profile owners. Published in Media Psychology, this experiment involving 295 participants scrutinized how creativity dimensions impact perceived romantic attractiveness and the mediation of expectancy violations, originality, and oddness.
“I’m as friendly as a blue Stabilo ballpoint”
In this online study, researchers introduced three types of dating profile texts: not novel and appropriate (such as “If we go on a date, I would like to have fun while doing some nice activity together”), novel and appropriate (for example “If we go on a date, I would like to do this while enjoying a Verdejo and nachos from the oven”), and novel but not appropriate (which is indeed my favorite: “If we go on a date, I would like to do this while enjoying a Verdejo and nachos from the oven, just like I did with my two previous dates”). They aimed to understand how these texts affected people’s perceptions. By comparing usual texts with new ones, both appropriate and inappropriate, they investigated how standing out or not conforming in these texts impacted perceptions of profile owners. This approach precisely observed how being different or appropriate influenced perceptions of dating profiles.
So, what should you put in your dating profile?
This study unveils a crucial balance between novelty and appropriateness in online dating profiles. Novelty, representing originality, is pivotal for creativity. Authors of unique profile texts are seen as more original than those with ordinary profiles, aligning with past studies. However, the surprising element lies in appropriateness, determining how creatively a text is perceived. Texts that don’t fit well are viewed as odd, reducing romantic appeal. To stand out, one needs both novelty and appropriateness; they are intertwined and influence each other. When new texts defy expectations, they portray the owners as odder and less appealing. It’s akin to crafting a new recipe — aiming for difference while remaining appealing! This research goes beyond dating; it illustrates how expectations shape our initial opinions. Now armed with the secret recipe for a great dating profile — uniqueness intertwined with suitability — it’s time to find your match. Swipe right for creativity!
If you are interested in this work, you can read the full article online at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2023.05.008
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Today’s article: Van der Zanden, T., & Schouten, A. P. (2023). Creativity, Expectancy Violations, and Impression Formation: Effects of Novelty and Appropriateness in Online Dating Profile Texts. Media Psychology, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2023.05.008
