Too many chins, too shiny of skin, too crinkly a nose, too frizzy of hair… finding profile pictures for my online dating profile was a painful exercise in self-scrutiny.

And an unhelpful exercise at that. According to a study by OkTrends, slight physical flaws can actually help you receive more online dating messages.

“If you're a little chubby, play it up. If you have a big nose, play it up. If you have a weird snaggletooth, play it up: statistically, the guys who don't like it can only help you, and the ones who do like it will be all the more excited,” says OkTrends.

Whaaaaat? It turns out that on OkCupid (and I must assume on all dating sites), the women who are seen as attractive by the most men are actually messaged less often than those women who are seen as attractive by fewer men.

Why? Well, men are lazy. If they suspect a lot of other guys are into a woman (based on her widely appealing looks), they figure they’ll have more competition and generally give up without a fight… or even a message. But if a woman doesn’t look so widely appealing, but has a very specific and less-popular look (tattooed girls are a prime example), guys think they’ll have less competition and are more likely to make a move.

Of course, that doesn’t mean guys are messaging girls they don’t think are hot, OkTrends says. But they are more likely to message girls they think are under-the-radar hot.