Hey, let’s face it: Those of us who are single likely have this mischievous little app downloaded on our phones. Even if you haven’t downloaded Tinder, you probably at least have a friend who is constantly swiping left, looking for a hottie. Tinder gives us all the chance to find our ultimate one-and-only, all with the swipe of a thumb.

If you’ve used the app, you are probably familiar with the term “dry spell.” Urban Dictionary defines the term like this: “A dry spell is where you go for a length of time without getting any.” Replace “getting any” with “getting any matches,” and you’ve defined one of the most common problems people have with Tinder. If you have ever run into this problem, it’s most likely because you aren’t playing the game correctly, or you aren’t including enough dogs in your pictures.

After hearing that many of my close friends and family suffer from Tinder dry spells regularly, I decided to create a social experiment to test what kinds of people get the most dates; and I wanted to focus specifically on men. I identified five major categories most men on Tinder fell under: Frat Dude, Outcast, Gym Rat, Animal Lover, and Sensual Man. I drew my stereotype conclusions from the five photos Tinder lets you post along with your profile. My goal was to test each stereotype in order to see which kind of guy got the most dates, or even swipe-rights (i.e., matches). I was hoping to see a trend that would be able to help guide my peers to get a date on Tinder.

I asked five of my close male friends to change their set of photos to match a specific stereotype. Each friend was given one of the five stereotypes; I provided the photos. Their corresponding biography paragraphs were identical: “University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), 20 years old.” Over the next three weeks, each friend was asked to swipe right 100 percent of the time. They would wait until a girl swiped right, and then they would provide this standard conversation to ask a girl out:

             Hey

(wait for response)              

              How are you?

(wait for response)              

              I am only in town for 7 days, would you like to grab dinner sometime?

(wait for response)              

At the end of the three weeks, I created an infographic that showed how far each stereotype got in their race to date. As you can see, the Sensual Man stereotype achieved the most swipe-rights. However, the winner of the entire race was a shock. While the Outcast received the least number of swipe-rights, he actually ended up with the most actual dates.

I took this as a chance to re-think how people are using Tinder. Most people tend to post posed and unnatural photos, like the Sensual stereotype, but they rarely get very far. I figured that this must be one of the reasons why my peers suffer dry spells. In order to get dates, you have to post photos of yourself being yourself, which is what the Outcast did. He is able to get more dates because girls find him interesting.

It turns out that in order to win the Tinder race, you just have to be yourself.      

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