--- title: Advice for Online Daters: If You’re a Guy, Don’t Smile description: Men, if you're trying to lure the ladies with a photograph, make like James Dean and brood. Women are turned off by guys who smile,... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7141477/advice-for-online-daters-if-youre-a-guy-dont-smile/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-05-27T20:28:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:01:04.482Z article:section: Health og:title: Advice for Online Daters: If You’re a Guy, Don’t Smile og:description: Men, if you're trying to lure the ladies with a photograph, make like James Dean and brood. Women are turned off by guys who smile,... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7141477/advice-for-online-daters-if-youre-a-guy-dont-smile/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte47941ad4d89cb85/698a947d457a526b83d70961/emotioncropped.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: emotionCropped og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Advice for Online Daters: If You’re a Guy, Don’t Smile twitter:description: Men, if you're trying to lure the ladies with a photograph, make like James Dean and brood. Women are turned off by guys who smile,... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte47941ad4d89cb85/698a947d457a526b83d70961/emotioncropped.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Advice for Online Daters: If You're a Guy, Don't Smile > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=5b1b9e4b-846f-4439-89ab-2bb1810a1e7e&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) May 27, 2011 8:28 PM UTC  Examples of stimulus photos used in Happy Guys Finish Last: The Impact of Emotion Expressions on Sexual Attraction Examples of stimulus photos used in Happy Guys Finish Last: The Impact of Emotion Expressions on Sexual Attraction Jessica L. Tracy / UBC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) May 27, 2011 8:28 PM UTC Men, if you’re trying to lure the ladies with a photograph, make like James Dean and brood. Women are turned off by guys who smile, according to a new study published in the American Psychological Association’s journal _Emotion_.more Men, however, were most attracted to photos of smiling women, the study found. And both men and women said they were attracted to people with a look of shame. The findings may have something to say about how non-verbal cues like posture and expression affect initial sexual attraction in both genders. (**More on TIME.com:** [What Style of Flirt Are You? Find Out Here](http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/14/what-kind-of-flirt-are-you-find-out-here/)) Surveying more than 1,084 heterosexual men and women over the course of four experiments, researchers from the University of British Columbia asked people to rate the sexual attractiveness of people of the opposite sex based on a photo. The pictures were of male or female models making one of four facial expressions: happy (wide smile), proud (lifted chin, puffed up chest), ashamed (downcast eyes, lowered head) or neutral. The participants used a 9-point scale, with 1 being unattractive and 9 extremely attractive. Women rated smiling men the lowest, with shame-faced men higher than that. Men with neutral expressions or puffed-up with pride scored highest. “So to the extent that men think that smiling is a good thing to do if they want to be found sexually attractive, our findings suggest that’s not the case,” Jessica Tracy, a University of British Columbia psychology professor who directed the study, [told](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-smiles-sex-idUSTRE74N7CJ20110524) Reuters. (**More on TIME.com:** [Lovers Can’t Agree on Whether They Agreed to Embrace Monogamy](http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/01/lovers-cant-agree-on-whether-they-agreed-to-embrace-monogamy/)) Meanwhile, male viewers rated prideful and neutral facial expressions on women as least desirable. They were most sexually attracted to women with big smiles or shamed expressions on their faces. Reuters [reported](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-smiles-sex-idUSTRE74N7CJ20110524): --- > “” --- But before you go around frowning at every alluring prospect at the bar, remember that the results apply only to initial reactions to sexual attractiveness in photos. As such, they’re probably only useful for helping you choose an online profile picture. (**More on TIME.com:** [Love Isn’t Color-Blind: White Online Daters Spurn Blacks](http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/22/love-isnt-color-blind-white-online-daters-spurn-blacks/)) As far as real-world, long-term relationships go, people look for a lot more than sexual attractiveness. “How nice a person is, is a big thing,” Tracy said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141477/advice-for-online-daters-if-youre-a-guy-dont-smile/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7141477/advice-for-online-daters-if-youre-a-guy-dont-smile/"},"headline":"Advice for Online Daters: If You're a Guy, Don't Smile","datePublished":"2011-05-27T20:28:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:01:04.482Z","description":"Men, if you're trying to lure the ladies with a photograph, make like James Dean and brood. 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