Liars have short legs. The relationship between deceptive self-presentation and mating opportunities in online dating

Untruthfulness and deception are common constituents of social interactions. In everyday life, however, they usually occur in form of small lies and cheating. Gaining a better position in order to receive social approval by others might be the intention underlying untrue statements. In this contribution, we investigate deception in self-presentation in the context of mate choice on online dating sites. Using data from an online survey conducted amongst users of an online dating site, we analyse whether patterns of misrepresentation in users' profiles can be detected and which of the actors' characteristics influence the observable patterns of untruthfulness. For this purpose, we introduce an analytical distinction between specific and unspecific compensation of disadvantageous chances in mating. The empirical analyses focus on deceptive presentation in the user profile concerning educational level and physical attractiveness. The results show clear gender specific and trait specific patterns of deceptive self-presentation. With regard to, for example, body height, there is a significant effect for men, but not for women: especially small men have a higher probability to misrepresent their height in the user profile. This strategy will be called specific compensation of disadvantageous chances on the partner market. In addition, the analyses support our expectations concerning strategies of unspecific compensation: actual or perceived disadvantages in one characteristic can lead actors to misrepresent themselves in another characteristic; likewise, disadvantages in one characteristic can be compensated by advantages in other characteristics. Using unspecific compensation, actors are able to keep deception in one characteristic on a minimal and therefore excusable level.