Overview
- Three controlled experiments with 594 single young adults compared narrative and list-style profiles that conveyed identical facts.
- Narrative formats consistently elicited more empathy, which in turn predicted greater reported romantic interest.
- The effect appeared across text-only profiles, photo-only profiles, and profiles that combined text with images.
- Narrative photo sets depicted everyday activities, while non-narrative photos placed people in neutral settings such as parks or streets.
- The study, led by Gurit Birnbaum at Reichman University and published in Psychology of Popular Media, recommends short personal stories and everyday-life photos to humanize profiles.