Step away from the car! Car profile pics voted as Brits’ biggest turn off

Over the past year, ‘icks’ and red flags seem to be all that social media users can talk about, and a couple of months ago we set out to discover the most common icks among Brits. After discovering that an Android was the biggest turn off for you all, we wanted to continue to dive a bit deeper and discover how social media profiles can impact singletons’ views on prospective partners.

We were intrigued to find out just how much your profile can influence someone’s opinion on you and it’s safe to say we were fairly amused by some of the turn offs that people mentioned!

Surveying 2,000 single Brits to discover what profile pictures turn them off, we are excited to share with you a list of the top ten types of pictures so you can see if your social media profiles may be why you’re single.

The top 10 most most off-putting profile pictures as voted by British singletons (and ones you should avoid posting) are:

1. Posing with a car
2. Fish pics (someone posing with a fish they’ve caught)
3. Heavily filtered pictures
4. Taking pictures in the gym
5. Pouting
6. Pictures of half their face
7. Club photographer pictures
8. Pictures with endangered animals
9. Selfies with celebrities
10. Vaping pictures

Diving into the findings and looking into specific demographics, we discovered that nearly all women (92%) found ‘car pictures’ unappealing, as well as pictures taken in the gym as half of women (56%) agreed that the sweaty snaps would reduce the chance of pursuing a relationship with someone.

In comparison, it found that men were particularly deterred by ‘heavily filtered pictures’ being used on social media, with a staggering three quarters of guys (73%) agreeing it would put them off someone. Speaking to men we also found that potential partners covering their face in a picture was also undesirable with nearly all of those confirming this is due to ‘catfishing’.

Additionally it was fascinating to see that the type of pictures you found off-putting varied between ages too, as almost three in five singletons (56%) over the age of 25 stated that a picture of someone holding a fish is a big turn off, while just under a quarter (24%) of singletons over the age of 30 agreed that pictures of someone pouting were a no go.

We’ve loved conducting this survey however as our aim at POM is to help our users find a match based on something deeper than just a picture/profile, following the findings we’ve decided to show singletons that dating is more than just appearances or a bad car this Valentine's Day. So, we’re excited to announce that today (Monday 14th February) we will be launching a fun activation in the centre of London today to celebrate Valentine’s Day for those flying solo!

The activation will see us driving singletons and some of your favourite influencers around the capital in a bright pink, one of a kind Hummer, hosting a ‘Singalong Speed Dating’ experience that will take place in the quirky car and will also see us gifting commuters roses throughout the day.

We hope this Valentine’s Day we can prove that dating is more than just appearances and we can’t wait to show off our extravagant Hummer to all Londoners today, so if you’re in the area please keep an eye out for us!