Online dating similar to face-to-face meetings

People dating online behave similarly to those who meet face-to-face, researchers have found.



Experts at the University of Kansas quizzed more than 5,000 participants in a national Internet matchmaking service to determine what kinds of people are most likely to lie about topics such as personal interests, attributes, past relationships, age and weight during the online dating process.



Jeffrey Hall, assistant professor of communication studies, found that those most likely to lie in the virtual world were “high self-monitors”, people who have an acute sense of what people like and control their behavior to achieve social ends.



Hall said: “What people lie about depends on what kind of people they are. 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.”



Hall added: Online daters shouldn’t be concerned that most people are presenting a false impression of themselves. What influences face-to-face dating influences the online world, too.”