Although choosing the profile photo of your social networks may seem like a simple task, we all get complicated, which one will be better? Is it that I’m on the beach or where I hug a tree? According to a new study by scientists at the University of New South Wales, you’d better stop wasting this valuable time and ask someone else to do it for you.
To reach these conclusions, the researchers asked a group of volunteers to take photos for different social networks, dating and networking. Once they had them, the scientists asked the participants to choose which ones to use and which to discard. In addition, they were asked to value each image taking into account such things as competition, trust, attraction or reliability. After evaluating themselves in different poses and situations, they had to do another experiment: to value the photos of strangers.
As they explain in their article, published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, the researchers discovered that the images chosen by complete strangers made a better impression than those that the person had chosen on himself. According to lead author David White, “this happens because we tend to choose photographs where we are most attractive, a criterion that is not valid in certain situations or most important for some people.” In Linkedin, for example, the important thing is not to be attractive, but competent and safe. And, even if it seems a lie, in a dating website either: people tend to focus reliability on attractiveness.
So you know, before uploading a profile photo online, ask others what they think. Maybe you will do much better.
