Funny or Beautiful? How Cues of Different Humor Styles and Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Profiles Affect Perceived Attraction

Sep 19, 2026

Showing a good sense of humor appears to be an effective strategy for attracting romantic partners, which may be why users of online dating platforms often include humor in profile texts. This study examined how affiliative, aggressive, or absent humor styles combined with picture attractiveness influence perceived attraction and the intention to like. An online 2 x 3 within-subjects experiment (195 participants) tested six fictitious profiles. Affiliative humor increased perceived attraction, while aggressive humor showed no negative effect; highly attractive pictures also increased attraction. Perceived attraction predicted a higher intention to like, highlighting the need to distinguish humor styles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatPDF

Pages84

Reading Time29 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Theoretical framework

Online dating

Impression management and formation

Perceived attraction

Humor and attraction

Physical attractiveness and attraction

Humor and physical attractiveness

Attraction and intention to like the profile

Method

Design

Sample

Participants

Materials

Pretests

Measures

Procedure

Data analyses

Results

Manipulation check

Linear mixed model analysis

Regression analysis

1 Funny or Beautiful? How Cues of Different Humor Styles and Physical Attractiveness in Online Dating Profiles Affect Perceived Attraction Fenne Koenraadt ANR: 782974 SNR: 2055488 Master’s thesis Communication and Information Sciences Business Communication and Digital Media School of Humanities and Digital Sciences Tilburg University, Tilburg Supervisor: T. van der Zanden Second reader: C.C. Liebrecht 2 Abstract Showing a good sense of humor appears to be an effective strategy for attracting romantic partners, which may be why users of online dating platforms often include humor in the written texts of their profiles. However, humor can be expressed through different styles, and not all are necessarily perceived as evidence of a good sense of humor. This study aimed to investigate how, on online dating platforms, different humor styles in the profile text and attractiveness of the picture affect perceived attraction and whether this determines the intention to like the profile. An online experiment with a 2 x 3 within-subjects design was conducted in which 195 participants were presented with six fictitious dating profiles that had a text containing affiliative, aggressive, or no humor, and a moderately or highly attractive picture. The results show that cues ofaffiliative humor positively affect perceived attraction, but cues of aggressive humor do not negatively affect it. A highly attractive picture can also positively affect perceived attraction. No evidence, however, was found for the expectation that cues ofthe two humor styles would carry more weight for perceptions of attraction in the texts of moderately attractive profile owners than those of highly attractive profile owners. Furthermore, it was found that perceived attraction to a profile owner leads to a higher intention to like their profile. Thus, this study highlights the importance of distinguishing different humor styles when investigating the attractiveness of humor in online dating profiles. Keywords: humor styles, online dating, picture attractiveness, perceived attraction 3 Table of contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 2. Theoretical framework .......................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Online dating ................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Impression management and formation .......................................................................... 9 2.3 Perceived attraction ....................................................................................................... 10 2.4 Humor and attraction ..................................................................................................... 11 2.5 Physical attractiveness and attraction ............................................................................ 14 2.6 Humor and physical attractiveness ................................................................................ 15 2.7 Attraction and intention to like the profile .................................................................... 18 3. Method................................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Design ............................................................................................................................ 19 3.2 Sample ........................................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Participants .................................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Materials .............................................................................................................

FAQs

How were humor styles and picture attractiveness tested in the study?

An online experiment used a 2 x 3 within-subjects design where 195 participants viewed six fictitious dating profiles varying by affiliative, aggressive, or no humor in the text and by moderately or highly attractive pictures.

What effect did affiliative and aggressive humor cues have on perceived attraction?

Affiliative humor cues positively affected perceived attraction. Aggressive humor cues did not negatively affect perceived attraction.

Did perceived attraction influence the intention to like the profile?

Yes. Perceived attraction to a profile owner led to a higher intention to like their profile.

Sep 19, 2026

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