Love Swipes Right: A quantitative study on how the facial expressions and gaze direction of men affect dating app interaction intentions

Abstract: How individuals market themselves online has become increasingly relevant as the abundance of options makes distinctiveness even more important. The same holds for one's dating app profile. Prior research on online dating has primarily focused on browser-based online dating profiles, and research on dating apps is inconclusive. The majority of impression making on dating apps, and in mass media in general, is done through images. Therefore, this thesis will explore the effect of the facial expression and gaze direction of men in dating app profile pictures have on the perception of and dating interaction intentions towards the individual. A questionnaire-based quantitative experiment was conducted with 234 female respondents between the ages of 18 and 30. Each respondent was exposed to a man's dating app profile picture, consisting of one of four combinations of gaze direction (averted or direct) and facial expression (neutral or smiling). The study measured and found that the combination of gaze direction and facial expression in the first dating app profile picture of a man interested in dating women had no significant effect on their success of the platform, but the underlying qualities of a profile had a significant impact on this success.