Why abdominal showmen getting cold shoulder

Why you shouldn't try too hard on selfies. Photo / 123RF

Pictures carefully taken to show off muscles and good looks are often a staple of men's dating profiles.

But new research suggests that hopeful male singletons might as well not bother - as looking "average" could serve them better.

The study found that women plumped for men who were less attractive as they might think they were more likely to be faithful and reliable.

Data from the Oxford Internet Institute shows that men who rate themselves as 5/10 receive more messages than men who give themselves a 10/10 rating. For women, the ideal rating is higher, at 8/10.

The analysis of messages over 10 years from heterosexual singles on dating site eHarmony found that women were becoming less and less likely to initiate conversations.

Men were 6 per cent more likely than women to send the first message in 2008, which had risen to 29 per cent this year.

Women who initiated contact with men received fewer messages on average, with their response rate dropping by 15 per cent when they had begun the conversation.

Single people had become less likely over time to see a potential match's religion, wealth or education level as important, though women are more selective across all criteria, including age. Researchers said the findings showed that daters had become "more tolerant" and more open to dating people from different backgrounds than in the past.

Taha Yasseri, professor of computational social science at the University of Oxford Internet Institute, said that someone who considered themselves a 10/10 might be unattractive in other ways.

"That tell us something about their personality, which is not probably the most interesting, apart from their looks," he said. "It also has to do with the self-esteem of the person who is checking the profile. They might think 'I am not that good looking, and if I take someone who is much better than me, I might be a bit worried about the faithfulness of my partner'."