In today’s digital age, love often begins with a right swipe. But what really makes someone stop and tap “like”? A new study crunched the data behind online dating decisions — and the results are clear. Physical attractiveness reigns supreme. Contrary to popular belief, men and women prioritized looks in online dating almost equally.
Researchers from the University of Amsterdam analyzing thousands of dating app decisions found that attractiveness overwhelmingly determined who got matched. Improving someone’s looks had ten times the impact of boosting their intelligence, and even more compared to traits like height or job status.
“Imagine your profile picture and bio are both average,” wrote the researchers. “If you make your photo more attractive by one standard deviation, your matching rate jumps from 25% to 43%.” If you polish your bio by one standard deviation, you can expect only a 2% bump, the researchers found.
What really makes someone swipe right
“I’ve always been fascinated by how people decide whom they want to date and whom they don’t,” study author Jessika Witmer of the University of Amsterdam told PsyPost. “The dating world has changed significantly in recent years, and I felt that much of the existing research no longer accurately reflects modern dating life.”
The study used a method called conjoint analysis, which isolates the impact of different traits by systematically varying them in fake dating profiles. The study involved 445 dating app users in Germany, evenly split between men and women. Each participant reviewed 12 sets of profiles, making a total of 5,340 decisions.
Participants saw randomized combinations of attractiveness, height, job prestige, intelligence, and biography quality. Then, they swiped as they would on a real app.
The findings confirmed what many singles already suspect: looks dominate. But they also challenged some long-held assumptions. Evolutionary psychology suggests men prioritize attractiveness more than women, while women value resources and status. Yet here, both genders behaved almost identically.
Your dating profile photo has 10 times the impact of your bio
While there was a slight tendency toward homophily (liking those like oneself), it paled in comparison to the power of a pretty face.
The study offers a few explanations. First, judgments of photos are fast and somewhat universal. Bios and job titles, meanwhile, are subjective — what one person finds charming, another might find dull. Intelligence and height, though objectively measurable, have broader acceptable ranges.
Second, dating apps may amplify short-term thinking. When scrolling quickly, instant appeal matters most. It’s not that other traits are irrelevant. But in a split-second decision, appealing physical traits grab attention.
The research also hints at a paradox: while people claim to care about personality, their thumbs tell a different story. The lesson is that self-reports often reflect ideals, not behavior. In the lab, study participants say intelligence matters. On apps, they swipe on hot photos.
Still, the study has its limits. The profiles used AI-generated photos, which may not capture real-world behavior. And while the results highlight initial attraction, they don’t predict long-term compatibility.
For users, the message is blunt: if you want more matches, invest in your pictures. But the study authors caution against despair. Being attractive on dating apps isn’t just genetics — it’s lighting, expression and even confidence.
The findings appeared in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports.
