Society & Culture - Posted by Jill Jess-Kansas on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 19:13 - 7 Comments 
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(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5) Loading ...Do online daters love to lie?
In the study, men admitted to lying more overall, but women were most likely to lie about their weight. Because online daters hope to meet face-to-face eventually, the amount of lying is quite small, says Jeffrey Hall. “Online daters shouldn’t be concerned that most people are presenting a false impression of themselves,” he adds. “What influences face-to-face dating influences the online world, too.” (Courtesy: iStockphoto)
U. KANSAS (US)—People who tend be a little dishonest when dating online would likely stretch the truth on a face-to-face date, too—all in an effort to make others like them.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Jeffrey Hall, assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas, surveyed more than 5,000 participants in a national Internet matchmaking service to determine what kinds of people are most likely to lie during the online dating process.
He asked them how likely they were to lie about topics such as assets, relationship goals, personal interests, personal attributes, past relationships, age, and weight.
“What people lie about depends on what kind of people they are,” Hall says. “For example, if you’re an extrovert, you might downplay the number of past relationships you’ve had because chances are you’ve had more relationships than an introvert.”
Those most likely to lie during online dating experiences are “high self-monitors”—people who have an acute sense of what people like and control their behavior to achieve social ends. Their actions are not necessarily manipulative, Hall says, but rather reflect a desire to be liked and to fit in.
Hall’s research was published in the February issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. (Listen to Hall discuss the findings.)
In the study, men admitted to lying more overall, but women were most likely to lie about their weight. Because online daters hope to meet face-to-face eventually, the amount of lying is quite small, he says.
“Online daters shouldn’t be concerned that most people are presenting a false impression of themselves,” Hall adds. “What influences face-to-face dating influences the online world, too.”
University of Kansas news: www.news.ku.edu/
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7 Comments
TabithaP
People lie all the time, but it’s not going to be long until you find out.
Nice blog. I’ve been trying my hand at sugar dating recently too. Thanks for the inspiration :) x
My buddy told me about online dating a while back. I need to read up on it a little more. He told me an interesting story about how his brother met his what-would-be-future-wife using an online dating service. His brother says that he and his wife have been extremely compatible and feel like they were destined for each. Aww, hehe.
Nice blog!
kyla
its amazing the content you find on online dating sites because alot of people lie in order to get dates… honestly, as entertaining as it is, it gets pretty annoying trying to decipher through the garbage people claim they like.
Of course they lie. why wouldn’t they. With photos especially!
Everybody lies a little especially if its to get girls. The only sites that you can trust are ones with video like reelspark.com because you can tell if the person is real or not.