‘Europe photos and fancy job title’: Singapore man says they helped him get more dating attention
young man in glasses checking his phone in an alley
SINGAPORE: A Singaporean man has noticed a rather telling uptick in female attention on dating apps after giving his profile a makeover to make himself look more successful.
In a post on Reddit’s r/asksg forum, the man shared that he had swapped pictures of himself travelling around Malaysia and Vietnam for those taken in Europe. He also changed his job title to suggest that he worked in a relatively well-paying industry.
“The location of a picture seemed to matter almost as much as the picture itself. A perfectly decent photo of myself at a café in Singapore didn’t seem to get as much attention as a similar photo taken at some aesthetic café in Paris or London. Same guy, same face, just a different background.”
“Even pictures of myself having dinner at relatively upscale restaurants or enjoying cocktails at rooftop bars seemed to do better than more ordinary everyday pictures.”
He also began mentioning that he had studied at one of Singapore’s Big Three universities, adding another prestigious detail to his dating profile.
Taken aback by the increase in matches, he checked with friends, and a few said they had seen the same effect.
One friend, he said, got noticeably more attention after stating that he studied law at a leading UK university and posting photos from classy restaurants and bars.
“Apparently, the difference in the amount of attention he received was quite noticeable.”
“We seem to get noticeably more likes and matches whenever our profiles subtly convey some form of social status.”
He concluded his post by inviting men to share whether they had noticed the same trend and women to weigh in on whether “someone’s university, job title, travel destinations, or perceived socioeconomic background influences how attractive you find them, even subconsciously?”
He also asked: “Are Singaporeans secretly more classist when it comes to dating than we care to admit?”
‘There is nothing inherently wrong.’
A female commenter conceded that such details do play a role. She said many women care about them more than they would like to admit, not necessarily because they want a wealthy partner to fund everything, but because a prestigious degree, solid career, frequent travel, and fine dining suggest someone is “educated, driven, and financially stable.”
That said, she noted there is a fine line between “subtly signalling status and blatantly trying to flex it.” “I’ve noticed more and more guys using AI-generated photos or paying for professional photoshoots, and some even go out of their way to show off their cars, luxury watches or business-class flights.”
“Like, why are you trying so hard to impress strangers on a dating app? Do you have nothing else going on in your life of value…”
Newsletter
Get updates straight to your inbox
Another user replied that this was hardly surprising. “It's like you just realised water is wet, and at the risk of making you even more mindblown, most folks are attracted to success. Not just Singaporeans.”
A third said, “Dating apps don’t reveal much about a person’s true personality. So, superficial bios and photos taken in extravagant settings are often the only ways to make someone appear ‘interesting.’ Outside dating apps, though, these same things can be a real turn-off, coming across as trying too hard to impress.”
A fourth added, “I think that’s the nature of dating apps that it amplifies the importance of material things, because people literally don’t know you as a person or share any common experience with you, whereas judging these data is straightforward. There is nothing inherently wrong.”/TISG