Study Finds Online Daters In WA Do A Lot Of Lying

"Online Dating Feels Forced & Artificial"

Alright, before we even start this little exercise, let's get one thing straight - I am not a fan of online dating.

In fact, I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean? After all, when you truly "date" someone, you don't actually do it online...or do you?

Hell, in this day and age, I don't even know anymore. But I've always considered the practice of looking for someone to "date" online as being nothing short of what I call "shopping for people". And just like buying anything else under the heading of caveat emptor in cyberspace, that's something which is bound to leave any consumer feeling shortchanged either right away or somewhere down the line.

"Washington's Online Daters Lie More Often Than Those In 46 Other States"

Enter website DatingAdvice.com's new comprehensive nationwide survey of 3,000 singles and what it has uncovered about an online dater's ingredients label not exactly living up to what it reads.

The survey asked daters to rate, on a scale from 1-to-10 , how honest anyone whom they'd ever met online and dated turned out to be - and the results were not only sadly unsurprising, but also placed Washington at the saddest end of the overall metrics.

It seems daters in the Evergreen State have a penchant for mendacity when it comes to the world of online dating, as they scored a paltry 4.1 out of 10 in the survey's overall results - a mark that placed them a full point lower than the study's national average and ranked it worse than every state in the country, with the exception of New York (3.4), Pennsylvania (4.0), and New Jersey (4.1).

"Online Daters In Washington State Lie About Nearly Everything"

So what is it that cyber-daters in Washington have a tendency to lie about the most?

Well, the survey asked respondents to pinpoint some specific areas where they felt particularly deceived, and once again the results were not surprising.

The survey found that 32% of respondents said they were lied to about their dater's current relationship status; 30% weren't told the truth about their dater's age; and 22% were duped about their dater's appearance in real life (wait a minute, what is that again?).

So, all in all, if many daters are being honest, their profile page should read something like, "Hi, I'm Phil. I'm 52 and currently married but like to fool around, and all of the pics showing my advancing alopecia and distended waistline are very recent." But of course, we all know that just wouldn't be as much fun as trying to convince a vestal and unsuspecting lamb on the other end of a fiber-optic connection that you're anything but all of those things, and probably worse.

A small percentage of online daters were even revealed to be guilty of bending the truth when it came to their hobbies and interests, level of education, job, and location. So we can chalk up a few more negative points for those cyber-Casanova profiles regaling viewers with their tales of being a swashbuckling Harvard graduate whose currently living in Monaco and working as a parfumoir to their royal family.

"Always Tell The Truth, Especially When You Lie"

To sum it all up, I'm sure there are plenty of examples of happy-enough couples who can lay claim to a backstory of having met online, but I'm still a firm believer in happening upon and getting to know any person who might become a part of your life - romantically or otherwise - organically.

Going online to cure loneliness or quickly procure meaningful intimacy more than likely won't work for most folks, and a vast majority of the lies being spun by online daters are probably being told out of fear or insecurity or both. But there's also plenty of scoundrels in the world who have made their perpetual deceptions a favorite pastime and are always on the lookout for another easy target.

I think the unfortunate truth is that we all lie from time to time, no matter how honest we might consider ourselves to be. But it's always the intent that matters the most. So as far as online dating and mendacious behaviors are concerned, I think Al Pacino's fictional character Tony Montana from the movie Scarface might have summed it up best when he said, "Me? I always tell the truth. Even when I lie."