Chosing images for displaying emotions is quite different then chosing them for displaying things in the background. Having photos that show different emotions instead of having every photo display you with the same emotions can increase emotional impact.
Generally, the goal of “stand out and produce an emotional response” is very different then “signal that you are at least average in many different domains”.
To try to make your claim precise: given two profiles:
Ugly guy in a dilapidated frat house with stains all over his clothes but making a lot of interesting expressions
Basic generic guy smiling in standard locations
I predict the second one to do better.
Maybe you are saying that, in addition to being average in the domains I list, you should also make interesting facial expressions? That doesn’t seem crazy to me, though I don’t know a lot of evidence about it either way.
Chosing images for displaying emotions is quite different then chosing them for displaying things in the background. Having photos that show different emotions instead of having every photo display you with the same emotions can increase emotional impact.
Generally, the goal of “stand out and produce an emotional response” is very different then “signal that you are at least average in many different domains”.
To try to make your claim precise: given two profiles:
Ugly guy in a dilapidated frat house with stains all over his clothes but making a lot of interesting expressions
Basic generic guy smiling in standard locations
I predict the second one to do better.
Maybe you are saying that, in addition to being average in the domains I list, you should also make interesting facial expressions? That doesn’t seem crazy to me, though I don’t know a lot of evidence about it either way.