Your photo in the makeout app says a lot about you – find out what

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One scientist decided to study the following question: does the photo in gay apps say anything about the users’ personality? The answer is: yes – and it is more complex than it looks, writes columnist Felipe Germano, from UOL.

To get the answers, Brandon Miller, a researcher at Boston University (USA) interviewed 322 men who have sex with men (known by the acronym MSM). The description is important because it goes far beyond the “gay man”.

In addition to interviewing pan or bisexual boys, MSM also includes people who simply don’t like to label themselves, or those who have homosexual sex, but declare themselves straight.

All participants should be in some sort of LGBTQIA+ app, such as Scruff, and answer a series of questions. Some of them, of course, were dedicated to understanding what the profile of the interviewees in the apps was like.

Does your main photo show your face? Completely or partially? Not? So you show the body? Is your torso completely naked? Is there a photo on your public profile that contains nudity or half-nakedness? Among other things.

What were the research conclusions?

With the spreadsheet data, Brian started to connect the dots and the conclusions started to appear. “Images where the face appeared were linked to greater (and longer) use of apps and a greater feeling of being out of the closet,” said Brandon at the end of his study.

“At the same time, photos of the body were linked to age, the search for masculinity and aversion to female men”, he adds.

There are a few points that explain these conclusions:

The first is homophobia. It is no wonder that many men do not show their faces, they may not feel safe to the point. Most of the guys who fit in the six-pack group had a high level of education and money.

“Due to the sexualized and stigmatized reputation of the apps, men from certain economic, professional and cultural contexts, perhaps avoid showing their faces, for fear of consequences on their reputation”, says Brandon. This explains a greater feeling of being inside the closet.

Shirtless people also felt safer with their own bodies – which probably made them more comfortable sharing photos without clothes. Not only that, they mostly linked the body display with masculinity. Which explains (but doesn’t justify) why they feel more masculine than average – and also avoid effeminate men.

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