New research suggests that people with higher levels of certain dark personality traits are more accepting of deception on dating apps, especially when it involves age, appearance and relationship status. The study also found that users are far more forgiving of weight-related lies than of gender misrepresentation.
The findings, published in Behaviour & Information Technology, shed light on how personality, gender and education shape attitudes toward common forms of online dating dishonesty. While most users disapprove of lying on dating profiles, the degree of disapproval varies sharply depending on what is being concealed or exaggerated.
How the study was conducted
Lead author Olga Bogolyubova surveyed 796 current or former dating-app users aged 18 to 67, with an average age of about 28. The sample included roughly equal numbers of men and women, along with a small number of participants identifying as another gender or not reporting their gender.
Participants were presented with six hypothetical dating profiles involving lies about age, gender, physical appearance, weight, socioeconomic status or relationship status. Each participant saw either male or female versions of the same scenarios, allowing the researchers to examine potential gender-based differences in reactions.
Respondents rated each deceptive behavior on a seven-point scale ranging from “entirely unacceptable” to “entirely acceptable.” They also completed a questionnaire measuring four dark personality traits commonly grouped as the Dark Tetrad: psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism and sadism.
Which lies people reject most
The type of deception strongly influenced participants’ moral judgments. A total of 93.1% firmly rejected gender deception, such as posing as another gender for entertainment, making it the least tolerated form of dishonesty in the study.
Lies about appearance, including using a model’s photo, were strongly rejected by 90.6% of users. Age deception was firmly disapproved of by 81.6%, while 78.5% strongly rejected concealing one’s relationship status, such as claiming to be single while married.
Slightly fewer participants, 71%, strongly rejected deception involving socioeconomic status, such as exaggerating income or job prestige. The least condemned scenario involved weight: only 37.7% strongly rejected understating weight by around 18 kilograms while avoiding full-body pictures.
Bogolyubova suggested that participants may have viewed modest weight misrepresentation as relatively common or less serious than using someone else’s image or concealing a marriage. However, even “smaller” lies can undermine trust when users eventually meet offline.
Role of dark personality traits
The study found that psychopathy was the most consistent predictor of tolerance for online dating deception. Individuals who scored higher on psychopathy were less likely to strongly reject lies about gender and relationship status.
Among users who did not already classify certain behaviors as entirely unacceptable, higher psychopathy scores were associated with greater acceptance of lies about age, appearance and relationship status. This points to a broader willingness to tolerate or potentially engage in manipulative self-presentation.
Machiavellianism, narcissism and sadism were also measured, but psychopathy showed the clearest and most consistent associations with tolerance of deception. The researchers emphasized that these traits were measured on a continuum and did not involve diagnosing anyone as a clinical psychopath.
Gender and education effects
Gender differences in attitudes toward deception were present but relatively modest. Men were less likely than women to strongly reject lies about age, socioeconomic status and relationship status in the scenarios they evaluated.
Women, meanwhile, tended to judge age and relationship-status deception less harshly when the fictitious profile belonged to another woman. These patterns suggest subtle gender-based biases, although the effect sizes were small and were not predictive at the individual level.
Education also played a role. Among participants who did not already strongly reject such behavior, those with lower educational attainment were more accepting of lies about age and appearance. This suggests that social and educational background may shape how people interpret and excuse embellishments on dating profiles.
Limitations and broader implications
The study relied on a convenience sample and self-reported attitudes, which may not fully reflect real-world behavior on dating platforms. The hypothetical scenarios had not been separately validated, and some of the personality scales showed less-than-ideal reliability.
Despite these limitations, the research offers a nuanced look at how different forms of digital deception are perceived. It indicates that not all lies are viewed equally and that personality traits, particularly psychopathy, can influence how much dishonesty people are willing to tolerate or possibly engage in themselves.
For dating platforms and users, the findings highlight the importance of transparency and expectation management. While minor self-enhancement is common, repeated or strategic misrepresentation can erode trust, discourage long-term connections and expose vulnerable users to more serious forms of fraud.
