Dogs in dating app photos help to get the girl. Not so for cats.

The conclusion of studies on straight men catching straight girls through dating apps is that your chances of success are improved if you include a dog in your selfie profile pic. By contrast, if they include a cat the girl is slightly repulsed because they think the man is effeminate and neurotic. I am sure, though, that some women like effeminate, neurotic men! In ay case the association is very often untrue. However, it is enough that some women think that they are effeminate, which is all it takes to ignore the picture and move on to the next.

In contrast, if a man presents a dating app profile picture of himself holding a dog the woman thinks that he has to be stable, reliable and prepared to invest in the future. You have to have that kind of personality in order to look after a dog successfully, don’t you? And if a man is stable and reliable he is going to be a good father to her baby! That apparently is the thinking behind the advantages of putting a dog in dating app pic. These are the findings of a study published in the jounral Evolutionary Psychological Science.

I can remember another study I wrote about some time ago in which a good percentage of women didn’t like to see men with cats when they were searching for a male partner.

This new study tells us that men who say they are looking for a long-term relationship a more likely to post pictures of themselves holding dogs. And nearly all women visiting dating websites are looking for a long-term relationship. In the study, they found that only 46 women in the whole of the province of Nova Scotia in Canada were looking for a short-term relationship.

The scientists analysed 750 dating profiles. It seems that men have come to understand that putting a dog in your photograph is a way of ensnaring women. It’s been found that women are more likely to give their phone number to a man walking a dog.

In the same vein, a 2015 study titled The Roles of Pet Dogs and Cats in Human Courtship and Dating found that women are more likely than men to say they have been attracted to someone because they had a dog.

Cats seem to give the impression that men are less masculine and more neurotic and I guess, as mentioned, effeminate and therefore less datable. I think that is a very shallow viewpoint. And the argument that a man is more likely to be reliable and responsible if they look after a dog must apply to a cat. I’m not sure the thinking is sound.

The profiles on dating apps indicate that 8/10 of the men looking for long-term relationships presented photographs of themselves with dogs. If they are looking for a quick casual relationship you’ll find that 5/10 of the photographs included a dog. The scientists believe that the difference is significant.

Maryanne Fisher an evolutionary psychologist from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, the lead author of the study, said: “Keeping a dog alive is a huge investment. It is an investment financially, but also you have to walk it and care for it and keep something alive. By showing these pictures perhaps they’re thinking, ‘Okay women you’ll see these and infer that I’m willing to do the same thing in our relationship.'”

A postdoctoral researcher from London, Gabby Baxter, 27, is quite savvy about men using man’s best friend to attract partners. She says that her male friends have often asked her to borrow her labrador for dating app profile photographs. She said: “Men know girls like them [dogs], and it makes them look fun, harmless and cute, especially if they’re holding small dogs. Some of my male friends have used pictures of themselves with my dog on the dating apps.”

Perhaps this is the weakness in women’s perceptions about men and dogs. Firstly, they are often fake photographs! They are promotional photographs to try and ensnare women. And secondly, the associations that they are making are, I believe, false too.