Introduction Online dating has changed the way people look for romantic partners. With websites like match.com, okcupid and even mobile sites like tinder finding a partner is only a few clicks away. These sites make it easy for the users to change small things like height, weight and even make their profession sound better. With the rise of photoshop the the ability to find any photograph on the internet, many online daters are cautious when using the sites.
“In a survey of online dating users, over 80% of participants registered concerns that others misrepresent themselves” (Gibbs, Ellison, & Heino, 2006), and, in another large-scale survey, “deception was identified as the biggest perceived disadvantage of online dating” (Brym & Lenton, 2001). This research is extremely important as a way to see why exactly people use online dating and why they attempt to self enhance or take it far enough to just be deceptive.Review of Literature The research surrounding lying, identity and online dating is an extremely important topic as the world continues to get online and leave traditional dating in the past. There is also a fine line between lying and self enhancing or doing your best to put your best features out into the world. “By engaging in substantial amounts of selective self-presentation, daters enhanced their physical characteristics relative to how they look on an everyday basis. This is especially the case when compared to levels of deception in other elements of the profile, such as height and weight” (Gonzales, A.
, & Hancock, J. 2008). The rise of people getting catfished, “lure (someone) into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona”. The research of why people lie and why people are more inclined to lie onli. .ipants to come in and talk to the researchers but many were simple surveys and did not require much outside of organizing the results.
Separating Fact From Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles only had 80 participants but they way they had great questions that were asked. Yet due to the lack of participants the results seem skewed especially when looking at the ages of the participants and the websites that they use for online dating. As they were all New Yorkers that were almost randomly selected, they was a severe lack of variety. If this study had used more locations I believe the results could of been applied to most people who use online dating in the United States. Due to the small sample size and the small area of the US I feel that this information cannot be attributed to the rest of the online dating community.
