Grouplove...

Riffling through my collection of pictures in order to shake up my profile a little. Most of the photos that I love are of me and my besties. Normally if I take a picture by myself, I just make this awkward oh you're taking a picture of me face. It's neither cute or endearing I promise. But if I take a picture with a group, I sort of feel obligated not to be the weird one who ruins the picture and really just doesn't want to be the ugliest one in the group. Because lets face it with such pretty friends its hard to compete. So I have to make sure I use my camera ready smile, not the rabid gerbil smile, or the creepy I'm up to something smirk. Because after all it will end up on Facebook for everyone to see. Just got've save those other two smiles for snapchat.

There are two major issues with using group photos for profile pictures when Online Dating. First of which how on earth are you supposed to narrow down whose profile it is? Do you actually want to take the ten seconds to open the full profile to find more pictures? Sometimes I'm just not in the mood, and it just seems like too much work. There's also that person who puts up 10 group photos all of which have at least three people in common. What do you do then? The first couple of rounds you go with your first instinct which will always draw you in to the uber attractive guy. Who am I kidding once you've honed in there are no other guys in that picture.  But after being burned a couple of times by my biased eye my trust began to waiver. So what do you do? Start to disregard the poor guy for poor choices in photo, or continue take the risk that he's the guy with gap tooth in the middle? 

Then theres the second risk you take in judging looks based on a group photo. It's subtle and deceitful and even a pro can be fooled.  There are many a times that I have succumb to the cheerleader effect, oh you've never heard of the cheerleader effect? The cheerleader effect is was first coined by Barney Stintson(HIMYM) to describe a group of super hot women or at least they seem to be super hot, until you take the time to look at each woman individually, and then you realize it. She's not hot all, In Barney's words she's a complete "sled dog". This phenomenon does not only apply to women. It is a psychological trick that effects both men and women. There are plenty of times when I've opened profiles and I've flipped through some alright photos and then hit a group photo where they looked SMOKIN' and all of sudden I've reached fan girl status. It's that hopeful thinking that could get lead you down the road to a very awkward first date. 

So after a taking a stab judging the group photo a couple of times, I've come up with a standard rule. If all you have to go on is a group photo, AUTOMATICALLY assume that he is the ugliest guy in the picture. This way when you are able to pinpoint which one is your stud muffin you aren't disappointed that he looks like more like a homeboy than your fantasy boy. And remember, don't disregard your first instinct of their other photos, because you'd hate to be duped by the cheerleader effect.