I'm sure that I'm not the only woman out there who's tried multiple times to find "the one" on dating apps, yet have failed time and time again. Through all of the searching, swiping, and sleuthing, I've noticed a few patterns in the profiles that I've seen... and apparently so have other women. Eventually, it starts to feel like you're seeing the same profiles over and over again. I surveyed 33 women and asked them to pick three of the biggest reasons they swipe left and here's the breakdown. (Disclaimer: For anyone who does not know how the system works, if you swipe right, that means you're interested. Swiping left means that you are not).
Out of 33 responses, 60.6 percent of women said the biggest reason they swipe left is when men have a picture of themselves with their ex-girlfriend, but with the girlfriend's face blacked out with text saying "This could be you." And I know, you're reading this and saying "Wait...guys ACTUALLY DO THAT??" I'm here to tell you that it occurs so often that it charted to be the No. 1 reason we swipe left.
Coming in second place with 48.5 percent and 16 votes is a man only providing one picture on his entire profile. In third place, with 45.5 percent, is the classic not providing any information on their profile. Ambiguity seems to be the trend. Now, if you're looking at the chart and see the consistent 3 percent bars with only one vote, the survey had an "Other" option for write-in trends that weren't already provided. These consisted of guys posting more photos of his dog than himself, all of his photos being group photos (this isn't a game of Where's Waldo!!), having a Bible verse in the bio, only posting attractive photos, and holding a fish or a dead animal.
Men reading this, are you shocked? What is it with the enigma that is your profile?
I decided to take it a step further and ask each woman what the likelihood would be for them to swipe RIGHT on a man who has each of these qualities.
Question 1: The high school letterman.
OK boys, the likelihood of you getting a right swipe for having anything even to do with high school is LOW. It makes us women feel like creeps. If your best photo is one that you took during your high school senior photos, go outside and have your roommate snap one of you doing a cartwheel or something. Show us that you're in COLLEGE or OLDER (Unless you are, in fact, like 16 or something).
Question 2: Group photos.
OK, so group photos. I touched on this earlier, but if your first photo is a group one, followed by another group one, it starts to turn into a game of "Where's Waldo?" However, I believe the status of "would you swipe" depends on if the group photo is followed by a singular photo. I should have originally been more specific in the question. My personal opinion is that group photos are great because it shows us that the guy has friends, however, keep them off of the first picture.