LONDON, November 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- The ugly truth of online dating: Women lie more than men - and Americans are bigger liars than the Brits

Women lie about their looks and men lie about their jobs in the battle to find a partner through internet dating, according to a survey of 1,000 single adults commissioned by online dating community BeautifulPeople.com.

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The study of single men and women - all of whom belong to leading dating sites - was conducted across the US and the UK by global research agency OpinionMatters. It revealed that the majority of young women lie about their appearance; with most saying they are slimmer than they actually are. Nearly one in five admit to using old photographs to make themselves look younger.

Greg Hodge, MD of BeautifulPeople.com a dating community exclusively for good looking people, said: "The online dating industry is a minefield of people misrepresenting themselves. You arrange a date with a pretty young woman with a 'slim build' and when you meet her it's like she's sent her fat older sister. Trust is broken on the first - and last - date."

Men are no better. Almost half admit that they also lie about their appearance; with many saying they are taller than they are. Men also tell the same lies as women about age and weight.

And when it comes to other lies, men are worse than women. More than 40% admit to making out they earn more than they really do or try to make their jobs sound more interesting. In comparison, 33% of women lie about their jobs to make them sound more glamorous.

There is a sign that people are forever optimistic when online dating: a clear majority believe others lie when writing online profiles. But when it comes to actually reading about potential dates, they are far more likely to believe what they are reading is true.

Of the thousand single people surveyed in Britain and America there was a difference between countries, as well as genders.

Over 53% of Americans admitted to lying about their appearance, compared to just 44% of Britons. Hodge explained: "American society is more obsessed with appearance and stature than the British so it makes sense that they would embellish the truth. What doesn't make sense is that British online daters are more honest - they have much more to lie about, being amongst the least attractive people in the world."

But on both sides of the Atlantic, the older people got, the less likely they were to be untruthful about their appearance and how much money they earned; an indicator that as the years pass people want to be accepted for who they really are.

Hodge added: "People need to know what they are getting. Nobody wants to trawl through a gallery of nightmares making out they're Megan Fox when they look like Mrs. Doubtfire. Our members are selected by their peers, and we're the only dating website with an authenticity app that verifies members look as they have represented themselves in their photos. This increases safety and vastly improves the user experience. I defy any other site to have members who are as true to their profiles as ours."

 
    Top Ten Lies Told by Men                  Top Ten Lies Told By Women    Job (better than it is)                   Weight (losing a few pounds)
    Height (taller)                           Age (losing a few years)
    Weight (losing or gaining a few pounds)   Physique (toned)
    Physique (athletic)                       Height
    Money                                     Money
    More senior than they really are at work  Bust (gaining proportions)
    Interesting profession                    Glamorous profession
    Knowing celebrities                       Knowing celebrities
    Having PA                                 Having a PA
    Working in the film industry              Working in entertainment
 

    Most lied about professions:              Most lied about professions:
    what men say they work in                 what women say they work in 
    when they don't                           when they don't    Healthcare ('trust me, I'm a doctor')     Entertainment
    Finance                                   Marketing
    Film industry                             Finance
    Travel                                    Sales
    Entertainment                             Film industry
    Music                                     Legal
    Marketing                                 Media
    Public sector                             Travel
    Engineering                               HR
    Leisure                                   Leisure
 

Link to Results in detail

Further information:

BeautifulPeople.com has over 730,000 members worldwide, and since its global launch in 2009 it has rejected over 5.6 million applicants.

Entry to BeautifulPeople.com is only possible after passing a democratic rating process, where existing members vote based on photographs and a brief profile submitted by new applicants. The majority of successful applicants come from France, Brazil, the United States and Italy with the least successful applicants coming from the UK, Poland, Germany and Russia.

There have been over 600 marriages through unions founded on BeautifulPeople.com and many beautiful babies born.

BeautifulPeople.com is located at http://www.BeautifulPeople.com

SOURCE BeautifulPeople.com