Harnaaz Grewal (33612128)
University of British Columbia-Okanagan Campus
20-10-2015
Online Dating & Deception: Who Chooses To Deceive Online The ways in which people search for romantic relationships has changed drastically within the past few decades due to creation of online dating websites. This is due to the phenomenon of the computer and online dating. A 2007 study showed that Americans spent over 500 million dollars on online dating, making it the second highest industry for “paid consent” on the internet, trailing behind pornography(Ali & Wibowo).Online dating has provided a way for people to create Internet based profiles of themselves and gave them the ability to interact with others. Despite the ever growing popularity, online dating is often seen as having one major flaw: deception. Presenting oneself is a complex process which is further complicated when having to do it online. Deception is seen as a primary concern for online dating website users for …show more content…
Many evolutionary psychologists believe there are fundamental sex differences in mate selection due to the selection process of the past(Hall et al.,2010).Women look for men who are more resourceful whereas men strive to find a mate who shows better signs of fertility(e.g. physical attractiveness, youthfulness, weight) (Toma et al.,2008;Hall et al.,2010) .This could be for why in initial pursuit for a relationship in online dating, as well as traditional dating, people choose to show signs of deception. Several studies have found that men are more likely to misrepresent their height,