Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder, but researchers and dating platforms have long examined which traits tend to attract attention. Data from the dating app Badoo offers insight into some of the physical characteristics associated with men being more likely to contact women online.
Personal preferences vary considerably, and dating-app behavior cannot define attractiveness in general. Still, Badoo’s statistics point to recurring patterns involving height, eye and hair color, body type, grooming and smiles.
These findings are best understood as patterns in first impressions rather than a formula for attraction. Online dating places particular emphasis on photographs, while emotional connection, communication and compatibility become more important as people get to know one another.
Height and eye color preferences
According to Badoo’s statistics, approximately 46% of male users most often contacted women between 160 and 167 cm tall. This does not mean women outside this range are considered less attractive overall, only that profiles within this height range received more attention in the dataset.
Eye color produced another notable pattern. Despite the cultural prominence often given to blue eyes, around 60% of the men included in the data indicated a preference for brown eyes.
Eye color itself, however, is only one element of facial appearance. In face-to-face interactions, factors such as facial expression and eye contact can also influence impressions of attractiveness and interpersonal interest.
Hair, body type and first impressions
Hair color was also associated with differences in attention. Women with brown hair reportedly received around 40% of messages, compared with approximately 15% for blondes.
Hair color alone is unlikely to explain such differences. Hairstyle, condition, facial features and the way a person presents themselves in photographs can all contribute to an overall first impression.
Body type showed a somewhat less intuitive pattern. Women whose figures were described as “average” received more messages than those described as athletic. Because “average” is a broad and subjective category, the finding should not be interpreted as identifying one particular body shape that men universally prefer.
Other research has examined more specific aspects of body shape. A 2015 study from the University of Texas at Austin found that men tended to rate women as more attractive when the lumbar curvature between the back and buttocks was approximately 45.5 degrees.
The researchers proposed an evolutionary explanation, suggesting that this degree of curvature may historically have helped women accommodate changes in the center of mass during pregnancy. This interpretation concerns a specific anatomical feature and should not be generalized into a universal standard for female attractiveness.
Grooming may influence first impressions
Badoo’s data also suggested that women with clean, well-maintained nails attracted more attention from men online.
Grooming can contribute to overall appearance, although it is difficult to determine from dating-app statistics whether nails themselves drive greater interest or are simply associated with other aspects of presentation.
Natural-looking nails have also become prominent in contemporary beauty trends, but fashion trends should not be confused with established psychological preferences. Individual reactions to nail length, color and style can differ substantially.
A smile may be a more immediately noticeable feature. A survey associated with Match Group reported that 60% of men and 71% of women considered teeth and smiles among the first things they noticed on a date.
Smiling can also affect how a face is perceived by conveying friendliness or openness, although its impact depends on the individual, photograph and social context.
Dating-app preferences have limits
Dating apps create an unusual environment for studying attraction because users often make rapid decisions based on a small number of photographs and limited profile information. Easily visible characteristics can therefore play a larger role in deciding whether someone sends an initial message than they might later in a relationship.
There are also important limits to interpreting platform statistics. Messaging behavior does not necessarily reveal a person’s ideal partner preferences, and associations between particular characteristics and receiving messages do not show that those characteristics caused the additional attention.
The findings also should not be treated as universal preferences among men. Dating-app populations are self-selected, and patterns can vary with age, location, culture and the particular users active on a platform.
Rather than providing six features women should try to reproduce, the data offers a snapshot of how certain visible characteristics were associated with attention in one online dating environment. Attraction outside an app involves considerably more information, and the qualities that prompt an initial message are not necessarily those that determine compatibility or relationship satisfaction.
