Don’t puff yourself too much if you’re writing an online profile on a dating site to find that perfect partner.
That’s the conclusion of researchers at the University of Iowa.
They created eight online dating profiles – four men and four women with one set that majors on the good stuff and downplays the bad.
The other set showed profiles that were realistic.
The profiles were shown to 317 adults who had already used online dating and found the realistic ones were the most selected.
“People were turned off by profiles that sounded too good to be true,” said the researchers. They found that “the more specific information a profile ctained that could be traced to a real person, the more the viewer trusted the profile”.
People want details, not broad generalities.
Researcher Andy High said: “Instead of just saying, ‘I write a blog’, name the blog and encourage people to check it out. If you work for a company, name the company. If you can name something, or provide people with a link to get there, then do it.”
