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Beauty vlogger's experiment on Tinder reveals men prefer Photoshopped women

Alexa Mitchell decided to see how men responded to her on Tinder in pictures without makeup versus pictures of her sporting a retouched look.
/ Source: TODAY

This probably isn’t the most shocking headline you’ll read this week, but it still stings — especially if you’re a straight, single gal searching for a mate on Tinder.

It turns out that a lot of guys out there have some pretty preposterous standards when it comes to a woman’s looks. Alexa Mitchell, AKA Maican Girl, a 22-year-old beauty vlogger, decided to test the Tinder waters to see how men responded to her in pictures without makeup versus pictures of her sporting a retouched look.

She uploaded a video documenting the experiment to her YouTube page.

“The experiment was based off of the idea that using apps like Relook to subtly tweak pictures will generate much higher results on dating profiles,” Mitchell told TODAY.

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Mitchell posted three photos of her bare face and then swiped right on 100 men, signaling her interest. Five hours later, of those 100 men, 16 had swiped right in return. It doesn’t sound so bad, until you consider what happened next.

Mitchell edited the pictures to eliminate blemishes, whiten teeth, and eliminate lines. Again, she swiped “yes” on 100 men. This time she got 73 matches — and these guys were eager.

“Many [of these men] would send multiple messages after seeing that I was not responding to their advances,” Mitchell said.

Nearly five times as many men expressed interest in the Photoshopped versions of Mitchell versus the natural ones. And keep in mind, Mitchell is only 22 years old with hardly any noticeable flaws even without retouching. It can make one shudder to wonder what lofty standards may exist in the minds of men when it comes to older women.

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So, was Amy Schumer right after all?

Mitchell wants to encourage all women to feel confident, and isn’t focused on those 73 matches so much as she is on the 16 from the first batch.

“The experiment showed that even with flaws there are still people who will accept [you],” Mitchell said. “I hope women will keep this in mind and not put pressure on themselves when using dating websites.”