From the February 2007 Scientific American Mind | 14 comments

The Truth about Online Dating ( Preview )

The hype is huge, and the findings are somewhat disturbing--but the future of online dating looks good

By Robert Epstein

More from this issue of Mind

February
2007 Issue
Head Lines Good Sex Is Not a Rat Race
Buy the Digital Edition

About two years ago I arranged to meet for coffee with a woman I had corresponded with online. I arrived early and sat at a table in a conspicuous spot. After a few minutes, a woman came to my table, sat down and said with big smile, "Hi, I'm Chris!"

But Chris was not the woman in the online photos. This wasn't a question of an age discrepancy or a new hairdo. She was a completely different woman. Chris was in marketing, you see, and to her it was simply a good strategy to post photographs that would draw in as many "customers" as possible. I never said a word about the photos. I just enjoyed our conversation and the refreshments. A few weeks later I noticed that Chris had replaced the photos with those of yet another woman.

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