How often do people lie on their online dating profiles, what do they shade the truth about, do men and women fib about different things, and how many Americans have tried these sites in the first place? The answers on file come from a 2019 survey of what US online daters believe, a 2008 study that checked 80 daters’ profiles against measurements, and a 2022 count of US adults who have tried a dating site or app.
What US online daters believe
In a 2019 Pew survey, 71% of US adults who had used a dating site or app said it is very common for people there to lie to appear more desirable. Another 25% said it is somewhat common, and only 3% said it is not a common occurrence. The Pew Research Center surveyed 4,860 US adults online from October 16 to 28, 2019, and published the results in February 2020; the margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. Pew’s “online daters” are the 30% of those respondents who said yes when asked whether they had ever used an online dating site or dating app.
These are perceptions, not a measured rate of lying. Pew asked users how common they think it is for people to “lie about themselves to appear more desirable”; it did not check anyone’s profile, so the survey does not show that 71% of daters lie. It does show that 96% of users think lying to look more desirable is at least somewhat common (our arithmetic), so most of them likely read a profile as a first draft that has had some help (our inference).
What one study measured
A study published in August 2008 in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin went past opinion. Eighty online daters rated how accurate their own profiles were, and the researchers, led from Cornell University’s Department of Communication, then collected each person’s height, weight and age and compared them with the profile. The abstract does not say where the 80 daters were recruited, so this is not a US national figure.
The researchers found that the deviations “tended to be ubiquitous but small in magnitude.” In other words, small gaps were everywhere. Men lied more about their height, and women lied more about their weight. The abstract gives that as a direction only, with no shares or sizes for the difference.
The daters’ own ratings of their accuracy were significantly correlated with the measured accuracy, which the authors say suggests “that inaccuracies were intentional rather than self-deceptive.” Overall, participants “reported being the least accurate about their photographs and the most accurate about their relationship information.” That last finding comes from the daters’ own reports, not from a measurement.
How many people use these sites
In a Pew survey of 6,034 US adults conducted July 5 to 17, 2022, three in ten said they had ever used a dating site or app, the same share as in 2019.
The short version
In 2019, most US online daters believed lying on dating profiles is very common. A 2008 study that measured 80 daters found the gaps were common but small, with men lying more about height and women more about weight, and the daters saying their photographs were their least accurate part.
Last checked: 2026-10-20, against the Pew Research Center reports of February 6, 2020 and February 2, 2023 and the PubMed abstract of Toma and colleagues (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2008). This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 Anderson M, Vogels EA, Turner E. “The Virtues and Downsides of Online Dating.” Pew Research Center, February 6, 2020. Survey of 4,860 U.S. adults, October 16 to 28, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/02/06/the-virtues-and-downsides-of-online-dating/ . Saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.
- S2 Toma CL, Hancock JT, Ellison NB. “Separating fact from fiction: an examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, August 2008, 34(8):1023 to 1036. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208318067 . PubMed abstract (PMID 18593866), saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.
- S3 Vogels EA, McClain C. “Key findings about online dating in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, February 2, 2023. Survey of 6,034 U.S. adults, July 5 to 17, 2022. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/02/key-findings-about-online-dating-in-the-u-s/ . Saved copy accessed Oct 20, 2026.