564. Foolish Lies
Trust in a close, bonded and committed relationship requires sincerity and honesty without exceptions. But with strangers and unrelated people, there can be situations, in which lies are a necessity of self-protection.
Trust in a close, bonded and committed relationship requires sincerity and honesty without exceptions. But with strangers and unrelated people, there can be situations, in which lies are a necessity of self-protection.
Independent of any moral consideration of the possible harm done by lies, there are rational and irrational lies. Rational are those with a high probability of getting away with. Irrational and foolish lies are those, which are determined to be discovered. In the latter case, being caught with the lies often does more damage than the truth would have done.
Lies in profiles on matchmaking sites are extremely foolish by any person using such a site for its real purpose. During real life encounters, many of these lies will be discovered immediately.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/fashion/online-dating-as-scientific-research.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
"about 81 percent of people misrepresent their height, weight or age in their profiles,"
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/exagger_dating_7N5Irwi6wBf636XjbJjV3O
"Men are on average 2 inches shorter than they say in their profiles, while women are an inch shorter. About 50 percent of daters fib about their weight. Almost everyone exaggerates their income by 20 percent,
"*24.3% of men and 13.1% of women lie about their age
* Men are on average 2 inches shorter than they say in their online profiles, women are 1 inch shorter
* 59% of women lie about their weight, 55% of men lie about their weight
* People tend to inflate their salaries by 20%
* It rises with age: 20-year-old men and women inflate by 5%; jumps to around 35% for men and women at 50 years old."
The choice to either lie or to be correct about facts and to apply the cautious preference of understatements in the case of attributes with only fuzzy self-evaluation allows some conclusions about the person's motivation and goals.
It is the choice between disappointing and surprising.
The preference to risk disappointing is the attempt to manipulate someone to meet once.
If the disappointing person is a man, he probably is convinced to be such an irresistible guy, that he can seduce the woman for a night, even though his lies have forfeited any trust in him.
If the disappointing person is a woman, she probably just wants to take advantage of a man paying for an expensive dinner.
The preference for hoping to be a pleasant surprise is the method to find someone for a long term relationship. When correct information and understatements are already sufficient to be acceptable for a meeting, then a pleasant surprised adds to attraction and eligibility.
The preference to risk disappointing is the attempt to manipulate someone to meet once.
If the disappointing person is a man, he probably is convinced to be such an irresistible guy, that he can seduce the woman for a night, even though his lies have forfeited any trust in him.
If the disappointing person is a woman, she probably just wants to take advantage of a man paying for an expensive dinner.
The preference for hoping to be a pleasant surprise is the method to find someone for a long term relationship. When correct information and understatements are already sufficient to be acceptable for a meeting, then a pleasant surprised adds to attraction and eligibility.
