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If you've ever spent time trawling the profile pages of an internet dating site you'll know how easy it is to become sceptical. It would seem everyone is into extreme sports, reads Dostoyevsky and "doesn't take themselves too seriously". After a while you can't help wonder if everyone on there is telling porkies.

But before you ditch the idea of logging on to find love, ask your self this: Are the men who post their profiles on internet dating sites any less likely to be telling porkies than the guys you meet in the real world?

According to a new study carried out by boffins at the University of Kansas, the answer is no.

Jeffrey Hall, lead author of the paper on internet dating published in the latest issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships explains, "Our findings dispel the myth that people using online dating are that different than any one else who might find a relationship through friends, school or work."

The study looked at over 5000 online daters in search of long-term partners, from all walks of life and over a wide age range from 18 to over 60. The survey included questions on personality traits such as openness, extroversion, education and income.

They also asked questions on what Hall calls 'self monitoring'. "Self monitoring is about how we try to present ourselves in a favourable light to others, to make people like us." Those with a low score are those who are truthful when describing themselves and those with high scores are those who are prone to 'little white lies'.

The study revealed that more adventurous types such as those who like to travel are less likely to misrepesent themselves because they are naturally interesting. Extroverts are more likely to misrepresent themselves when talking about past relationships because tend to have had more relationships which they may want to play down when looking for a new relationship.

But the findings suggest that the likelihood of people misrepresenting themselves overall is actually very low.
Another interesting conclusion drawn from the results was that contrary to the theory of men being from Mars and women being from Venus, the difference between individuals was far greater than any difference between the sexes.

Although it may come as no surprise that women were the more likely to lie about their weight while men were more likely to bend the truth about how many sexual partners they had had – or how serious they were about finding a long-term partner.

Okay, now we've established that online daters are an honest bunch on the whole, what are you waiting for? If you're still feeling a little apprehensive about signing up, check out my book, The Cosmopolitan Guide to Online Dating.

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