Using a new method that measured the actual difference between profile information and reality, the study revealed that men systematically overestimated their height, while women more commonly underestimated their weight.

"Surprisingly, age-related deception was minimal and did not differ by gender," said Jeffrey Hancock, an assistant professor of communication at Cornell University and lead author of the study. The study will be published in the April 2007 issue of Proceedings of Computer/Human Interaction.

According to the study:

» About 52.6 percent of the men in the study lied about their height, as did 39 percent of the women.

» Slightly more women lied about their weight (64.1 percent) than did men (60.5 percent).

» When it came to age, 24.3 percent of the men were untruthful, compared with 13.1 percent of the women.

For the study, a "lie" was defined as follows:

» For height, the discrepancy between what was said in the profile and reality had to be greater than half an inch.

» For weight, the deviation between what was said in the profile and reality had to be greater than five pounds.

» For age, there had to be a difference of a year between what was said in the profile and reality.

The results showed that a higher percentage of participants lied about their weight than either their height or age. For nearly two-thirds of the participants the difference between posted weight and actual weight was incorrect by five pounds or more.

Hancock says that social research abounds on how men and women use different strategies for finding love. In general, men seek youth and physical attractiveness in a partner, while women look for men who can provide as well as indicators of social status, such as level of education and career. The pattern of lies -- frequent but slight -- suggest that deception in online dating profiles is strategic.

"Participants balanced the tension between appearing as attractive as possible, while also being perceived as honest," said Hancock.

Many online dating services are now changing the way they handle the issue of weight, asking for a general body type (i.e. thin, athletting, a little overweight, etc.) instead of an actual weight. According to Hancock, however, the basic tension of trying to appear as attractive as possible without having a deception detected still applies.

Methodology for Gathering Study Information
Hancock, Cornell doctoral student Catalina Toma, and Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University assistant professor, examined four popular dating Web sites, where users create their own profiles and initiate contact with others: Match.com, Yahoo Personals, American Singles and Webdate. Study participants -- users of these Web sites -- were recruited in New York City through advertisements in the Village Voice and Craigslist.com. The final sample included 80 participants, equally divided between genders. After collecting information about the participants from their online profiles, the researchers measured each person's height and weight, and obtained their age from drivers' licenses.

"It's not surprising that the growth is so strong in Europe," says Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine. "There's a lot of room to grow and the practice is starting to become more widely accepted there."

Last year, True filed a lawsuit against a convicted felon and registered sex offender from California who applied for membership with the online dating service, misrepresented his felony status, and improperly accessed True's database, all in violation of its policies. The lack of access to all criminal records made it possible for this felon to circumvent the criminal background screening.

According to True, the prosecution has resulted in an agreement that achieves the following:

1) Prevents the convicted felon from signing up, using or communicating through any online dating or relationship service;

2) Requires him to immediately cancel all current memberships to online dating and relationship sites;

3) Commits the felon to complete a community service obligation;

4) Designates he pay monetary damages to True (which True claims it will donate to improving consumer safety).

In places like California, some jurisdictions restrict access by companies to criminal conviction data, such as the California statewide sex offender registry in this case. It allowed the felon to circumvent True's background check service. True claims that its primary objective in the lawsuit was to obtain a permanent injunction preventing the convicted felon from accessing the True Website and its members, no matter how long it took. The lawsuit explained that this convicted felon violated federal and state laws when he falsely represented himself to True and its members as a non-felon.

"From day one, when I founded this company, I made a solemn pledge to create a safer dating environment for our members and our industry," said Herb Vest, founder and CEO of True. "I take the safety of our members personally. Upon learning of his identity from a True member, we immediately removed this convicted felon and registered sex offender from our Website, alerted our members who had been in contact with him, reported the individual to appropriate authorities and started our civil prosecution. With this wide-reaching settlement we have improved the safety of True's members and the members of all other companies in our industry as well - even companies that previously ignored warnings that this specific convicted felon and registered sex offender was on their Web site and interacting with their members. This is a victory for the more than 27.4 million people who use online dating sites."

True has been doing a major push to force all online dating services to do background checks, while at the same time using provocative advertising to try and gain memberships, a tactic that has some questioning True's motives.

Related Links
A True Disaster
True's Exploitation of Women Goes Too Far
12 Online Dating Safety Tips