"An Image of Ourselves in Our Minds": How College-educated Online Dating Users Construct Profiles for Effective Self Presentation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how college-educated online dating users in China construct profiles to present themselves, emphasizing image selection and self-presentation strategies. Using semi-structured interviews with 20 participants and a Tinder-inspired profile-construction task, the authors identify three core themes: visual photo strategies, persona construction, and perceptions of others’ profiles. Key findings show users balance imagination, privacy, and targeted signaling by employing partial-face photos, aesthetic first impressions, and niche hobbies, while sometimes exaggerating traits to satisfy internal desires or external expectations. The study offers design implications for dating platforms, including two-stage presentation to protect privacy, more precise matchmaking that leverages lifestyle signals, and trust-building mechanisms through shared ground, aiming to promote authentic self-expression without compromising safety. Collectively, these insights advance understanding of self-presentation in online dating and suggest concrete directions to improve user experience, trust, and match quality.

Abstract

Online dating is frequently used by individuals looking for potential relationships and intimate connections. Central to dating apps is the creation and refinement of a dating profile, which represents the way individuals desire to present themselves to potential mates, while hiding information they do not care to share. To investigate the way frequent users of dating apps construct their online profiles and perceive the effectiveness of strategies taken in making profiles, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 experienced users who are Chinese college-educated young adults and uncovered the processes and rationales by which they make profiles for online dating, particularly in selecting images for inclusion. We found that participants used idealized photos that exaggerated their positive personality traits, sometimes traits that they do not possess but perceive others to desire, and sometimes even traits they wish they had possessed. Users also strategically used photos that show personality and habits without showing themselves, and often hid certain identifying information to reduce privacy risks. This analysis signals potential factors that are key in building online dating profiles, providing design implications for systems that limit the use of inaccurate information while still promoting self-expression in relationship platforms.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: Interview process: We conducted semi-structured interviews with three main topics (profile construction process, self-presentation in profiles, and perception of others' presentations).
• Figure 2: Profile construction process: We used Tinder as a template to guide users to create the profiles step by step. This is a profile example constructed using one researcher's photos following P4's photo selection and persona construction strategies.
• Figure 3: Key findings from the interviews
• Figure 4: These are a few photos uploaded by P8 on the dating app.
• Figure 5: Example photos according to participants' statements: a. Use "pictures of the scenery and own sketching work" to indirectly show one's talent. (P8) b. Photos of landscape that one shot could express a moment moved one person, while photos of oneself simply showed one's appearance. (P4) c. P3 provided two photos with varied appearances and hairstyles taken from different periods of time, which aroused others' curiosity.