If your search for “the one” has extended to the internet, don’t believe everything you read. A new study that will be published in an upcoming Proceedings of Computer/Human Interaction says that online daters often lie about their height, weight and sometimes their age.

According to researchers Jeffrey Hancock,a Cornell doctoral student, and Nicole Ellison, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, profile information on dating websites is often incorrect.

52.6 percent of men lied about their height compared with 39 percent of women. More women than men lied about their weight. Women underestimated their weight 64.1 percent of the time. The results seem fairly stereotypical. Age was not lied about as often, with only 24.3 percent of men and 13.1 percent of women telling a fib about their ages.

Hancock concluded that these online daters were trying to appear as attractive as possible without appearing deceptive.

In my experience, ask anyone for their height and they will tell you they are slightly taller than you would find them if you actually measured. And those who may be carrying a few more pounds than they admit to probably haven’t looked at the scale in some time and are relating a number close to what it said the last time they weighed themselves. But everyone knows how old they are, so if they lie about that, then you can probably consider them untrustworthy.

Although it is understandable that people may make mistakes or fib slightly to appear more attractive, it still means that the person you correspond with may have a different physical appearance than you expect.

The rule for online dating is to make sure you use a trustworthy, reliable and established service and carefully screen anyone you contact. Before meeting an online date in person, take precautions for your personal safety.

Looking for love on all the right Web sites?

Throughout the movie Sleepless in Seattle, characters refer to the classic Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr film, An Affair to Remember. Whenever it is mentioned, the men snort derisively and call it a “chick flick”. The women cry over the poignant story of lovers separated by a twist of fate.

It’s a standard stereotype that men don’t enjoy romantic movies and that they are made for an audience of women. But a survey conducted by Richard Harris, professor of psychology at Kansas State University, shows guys like romantic movies too.

Using a scale of 7 points, Harris asked couples to rate a romantic movie they had just seen. Women rated their enjoyment of the film at a 6, fairly high. When men were asked how much they liked the movie, they rated it an average of 4.8, much higher than the stereotype would lead us to believe. However, when asked how men as a group would like the movie, both men and women fell back on stereotypes and said men wouldn’t like the movie.

Harris also asked women which scene they thought men would like best. They generally chose a sex scene and they were wrong, men didn’t choose a sex scene as their favorite scene as often as the women predicted.

The survey shows that men are more romantic than the stereotypical male image and that both men and women believe the sterotype to be true. The focus of romance is often centered on the woman and her needs for romance thought to be the greatest in a relationship. But in reality, men may be getting shortchanged in the romance department.

Study by K-State professor shows romantic films not just for women