Online dating presents a million and half opportunities to lie and everyone takes part, even if by accident. The folks over at Ok Cupid have compiled some more data from 1.51 million users and have put together a list of the biggest and most popular lies people tell in online dating. Their version was a bit long so I made a better one for you.
#4 “I’m Bisexual.”
In reality, most people only message one gender or the other. Only about 23% of self-identified bisexual people actually actively seek both. Even research decades ago from Alfred Kinsey bared similar results. He found that while most people have inclinations toward the bisexual in some degree, they often only seek one gender exclusively at one time or another.
#3 “Here’s my recent picture.”
In fact the data shows that the more attractive the picture the more likely it is for the photo to be out of date. About 36% of all “attractive” photos are 12 months old or older, compared to only 20% of “Average” looking photos. Older people are even worse at posting recent pictures. For guys and girls 18-20 the average age of the pictures they post is under 200 days. Fast forward thirty years and the age of women’s photos increases to about 300 days and men, the worst offenders, have an average photo age of 520 days.
#2 “I make six figures.”
According to Ok Cupid’s data, people are generally 20% poorer than they say they are. This is consistent through genders, and gets progressively worse with age. Most people 18-20 inflate their income by only 5%, but once you get up to age 54 we’re talking about an inflation of 30%.
#1 “I’m six feet tall.”
In the US most men are between 5’6” and 6’0”. On Ok Cupid the average man is 5’8” and 6’2”. Men aren’t the only ones making themselves taller, as women add about 2 inches to their height as well. It’s an effective tactic, as women who are 5’10” and men 6’4” have more sex. Now this isn’t to say that lying online is effective as you will eventually meet and your 2 digital inches will magically disappear, but it can help get you a date.
Dealing with the lies of online dating is just something that comes with territory. At least you can go out and make better judgments of the people you’re looking at. Hopefully you can also take this and edit your profiles to have some resemblance to the true you.
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