Keeping your shirt on, obscure angle profile shots and plain smiling into the camera do not equate serious online-dating site action– so says a survey of 7,000 online dating photos conducted by free dating site Okcupid.com. While optimistically this should make sense, the findings of the survey may astound or baffle you with the do’s and don’ts that it implies.

The site measured popularity by how many responses a person received from posting, using people who were averagely attractive: Top and bottom end looks were struck off the survey completely.

According to organizers of the survey at Okcupid’s blog, OKTrends, the golden rule is: Cliché online dating photos do indeed work. Ab shots, and cleavage shots for women, regardless of age do well for people with OkCupid profiles. Frightening, yes. What’s even more frightening is that there isn’t really a concrete reason why this works. Survey organizers responded to this finding in saying,

“Whether you show your face really doesn’t affect your messages at all. We didn’t believe it. But the facts were stubborn: Your face doesn’t necessarily matter. In fact, not showing your face can be a positive, as long as you substitute in something unusual, sexy or mysterious.”

From the survey is a list of Do’s and Don’ts:

DO’s for Males
- Pose with an animal if you’re a male. This is just as good as an ab shot.
- Look away in your pictures — this is the best profile shot.
- Pose with your shirt off, if and only if, you have great abs and you’re under 31.

Do’s for Females
- Flirt directly into the camera as opposed to just smiling. Eye contact matters, even online!
- According to the survey, the cliche “Myspace Shot” is much more effective than boob shots. It’s the pose where you hold your camera above your head, look coy and shoot. Survey organizers claimed that this, “is the single most effective photo type for women; better, in fact, that straight-up boob pics.”
- Sadly, cleavage shots, regardless of how old you are.

Don’ts for Males
- Look into or flirt with the camera when posing.
- Pose topless if you don’t have abs that most people want to see.

Don’ts for Females
- Pose with a pet or an alcoholic drink.
- Flirt away from the camera.
- Just smile…flirting into the camera is best!

Thoughts? Guilty of commiting the don’ts?

Source: TheStar