Men Posing With Dogs on Dating Apps More Likely to Settle Down With a Partner, Study Does Not Specify How Many Legs

If you’re on a dating app looking for a long-term relationship, well, you might be barking up the wrong tree. But if you are commitment-minded and looking for love in the digital age, there might be a way to increase your chances. Simply post a pic with a four-legged friend.

Maryanne Fisher, an evolutionary psychologist from Saint Mary’s University in Canada, recently analyzed 750 dating profiles of guys and gals. She asked participants if they were more interested in short-term, no-strings-attached couplings or looking for a partner to settle down with. Her findings, which were published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science, indicated that 8 out of 10 men in the market for a steady girlfriend had a photo featuring dogs on their profile. That’s in contrast to men seeking brief sexual relationships; only 5 out of every 10 of those men included a pup in their pics. Those dudes, perhaps unsurprisingly, promoted their chests, motorcycles, boats, and (most cringe-y of all) big fish they’d caught in their photos.

Fisher’s interpretation of the findings was that when single women see a potential mate caring for a canine companion, they subconsciously assume he’s trustworthy and responsible.

“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,” she told the Times. “By showing these pictures perhaps they’re thinking, ‘OK women, you’ll see these and infer that I’m willing to do the same things in our relationship.’”

That said, there’s also an emerging trend in the online dating world called “dogfishing,” in which dudes find furry friends to insert in their photos as a way to entice women, even if they’re not actual pet owners themselves.

The moral of the story – err…study – is: if you have a dog, it can’t hurt your dating app profile to include it in your pics. But if you’re tempted to pull a bait-and-switch by featuring a pooch that isn’t yours, don’t. Women who truly love dogs will expect you to, well, pony up and bring your pup along on a date and then you’ll have some serious explaining to do.

Cover Photo: ferrantraite (Getty Images)

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