50 Brilliant Tinder Chats That Totally Deserve A Date, But Don’t Always Work As Expected (New Pics)

Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Geher, at the State University of New York at New Paltz, to ask him about the best ways to stand out from the crowd. He shed some light on the question.

"When it comes to presenting oneself in a mating context (which is, at the end of the day, what making dating profiles on platforms such as Tinder is all about), there are several features of oneself that might be helpful to underscore," he said.

"Decades of research on factors that are attractive to potential mates show various attributes that are rated as highly attractive. In this past research, mutual love and kindness often top the list—and this finding has been observed across a broad array of cultures. So coming across as loving and kind is probably a good idea!"

According to the professor, humor has also consistently been found as attractive. "This finding may well stem from the fact that a good sense of humor signals all kinds of positive attributes that would be beneficial in a mateship. A good sense of humor often goes hand in hand with such qualities as creativity, social awareness, and raw intellect," Dr. Geher pointed out to Bored Panda.

"This is why high-caliber comedians often come across as having something special when it comes to how their minds operate. And ending up with a mate who is creative, smart, and socially aware is likely to bring you all kinds of benefits in the relationship. And these benefits might ultimately spread to potential shared offspring as well."

Bored Panda was interested in getting the professor's take on dating in real life as well. We were curious about how someone might go about overcoming their shyness to ask others out in person. Dr. Geher noted that the world as a whole has changed much in recent decades as technology has progressed.

"The amount of 'business' that is done virtually these days—across all kinds of life domains—is increasing at breakneck speed. To deposit money in the bank, you can just go to your banking app. To obtain groceries, you can just go to Instacart. To check how a friend is doing, you just send a three-word text," he shared just a few examples.

These shifts in tech have also affected the dating world, too. However, Dr. Geher suggests that this may not necessarly be for the better. Online dating isn't as wonderful as it might appear at first glance. Especially because your potential matches may appear quite different from what they're like in reality.

"With more and more people meeting potential mates online via dating apps, there are some potential pitfalls. As opposed to meeting people in real life, meeting virtually is meeting someone’s highly curated self rather than, in some ways, their actual self," he explained to us.

"Think about the amount of time that someone puts into choosing just the right profile photo—which may well be touched up by any number of software tricks. Further, think about the fact that someone can edit their online description extensively before publishing it. They may even ask others (e.g., good friends) to read such descriptions and make some suggestions. So when you meet someone online, you’re kind of meeting their highly curated best self as opposed to maybe a more realistic, everyday version of who they are."

That's not to say that dating is easy when you ask someone out in person either. Dr. Geher highlighted the fact that meeting someone in person may be risky and stressful for many people.

"This is likely partly why so many people are turning toward dating apps to meet potential partners. Is this trend likely to change such that in-person meetings of potential partners becomes more commonplace, as in the past? We’ll need a crystal ball to answer that one!" he said.

"For now, I think that so many people see online dating as relatively convenient and less stressful than the kind of in-person dating that is looking more and more like a thing of the past with each passing day. Is this a good thing? Only time will tell."