What Are The Top Online Dating Lies For Women?

Everybody lies about something on dating sites.  The top online dating lies for women are their age, height, and weight.  Is this surprising?

Countless studies and research have shown women, and men, lie about something.  So why do women lie?  A study analyzed online dating and discovered the top online dating lies for women and why they do it.

Research suggests online daters think a certain amount of exaggeration is necessary.  The mindset of a typical online dater is that everyone else is exaggerating already, so they need to keep up.

"I need to lie on my dating profile because everyone else is” seems to be the general perception among women.  Women feel they need to lie on their dating profile to be competitive.   The motivation for women is to present themselves as best as they can, and they will typically try to enhance their youthfulness and physical attractiveness.

The study “An Examination of Deceptive Self-Preservation in Online Dating Profiles” found there are widespread online dating lies for both men and women.  81% of online daters in the study's sample lied about their weight, height, or age.

Weight was the most frequently lied about characteristic, followed by height, then age.  In the study, information about the participant's physical attributes was collected and then compared with their online profile to determine online dating lies.

The findings were widespread but small in magnitude.  What I mean by this is that many of these lies were small enough that it would be hard to detect the difference between the actual weight or height of someone with what they put on their dating profile.

For example, a guy might add an inch to his height, or maybe a woman would shed 5 pounds off her weight.  Online dating lies like this are hard to detect when you first meet someone.

The study found the 3 things women lied about the most were:

1. Weight - It should be no surprise that the most lied about characteristic by women was weight. Women tend to underreport their weight on their dating profile.  The weight difference deviation was an average of 9 pounds.
2. Height – In the study, half of the participants lied about their height.  Women tend to slightly over report their height on their dating profiles. It’s not uncommon for a woman who is 5’2" for example to say she’s 5’4".
3. Age - Age is the least lied about characteristic on a woman's online dating profile.  Women tend to underreport their age, but it's typically only by a few years.

The main conclusion of the study was the high percentage of deception on dating profiles; 81% to be exact.  The study also noted the differences that women reported were typically small;

• 2.09% on height.
• 5.5% on weight.
• 1.4% on age.

What’s a 5.5% weight difference you ask?  It would be a woman saying she weights 135 pounds and weighing a little more than 142 pounds as an example.

These kinds of small differences would be hard to detect in a face-to-face meeting.  Unless of course, you bring a scale and some measuring tape.  By the way, don't do this unless you want your first date to be your last date with a woman.

There were extremes though in the study; an 11 year age difference and a 35-pound weight difference for example.  35 pounds?  No doubt you've heard horror stories of people using photos which misrepresent themselves and showing up to a date overweight, a lot older, or bald for example.  It does happen.

I would run like hell if I met a woman for the first time and she was 35 pounds heavier in person than her picture.  Thankfully I have never had this happen to me.

If you are an experienced online dater or someone new to the game, you should know online dating lies are widespread.  It's safe to assume that the woman you're looking at is lying about something on her dating profile.

I'm not one to judge because I'm certainly guilty of lying about something on my dating profile.  I am 5'9," and I would put 5'10" as my height on my profile because I would see many women state in their profiles "do not write me if you are under 5'10." 

Or women like this who had height preferences for men: