Everyone lies on the internet, according to new research

The internet is a web of lies.

That's according to new research looking at online honesty, which found that "online deception is the rule, not the exception."

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Dan Misener CBC Radio's ever-truthful technology columnist looks athow and why we lie online.

What did the researchers want to find out?

This research published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour was conducted by a team of researchers whowere interested in online honesty. As they put it, they wanted to find out"whether or not people are depicting their true selves online."

Researchers wanted to know about our own honestybut also how truthful we believe others are. Sothey looked at this question across a few different types of websites:

• Social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
• Online dating sites like Match.comand Tinder
• Anonymous chat rooms
• And what they call "sexual communication websites."

They wanted to know if the typeof website makes a difference notjust in how much we lie online, but how much we expect others to lie online.

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And yes, the researchers did acknowledgethat measuring dishonesty is tricky business.

What kinds of lies are we talking about?

Michelle Drouin is a psychology professor atIndiana UniversityPurdue Fort Wayne, and was one of the authors of the new research.

She said people reported lying about all kinds of thingstheir age, their gender, their appearance, activitiesand interests.

Of the different types of sites they measured, people were most likely to be honest on social media siteslike Facebook.Nearly32 per centof people said they were "always honest" on social media.

"The reason for this is because these social media sites, we posited,have the most links to the outside world," said Drouin.

"It's a lotharder to lie about your gender or your age, for example,when you have pictures of yourself, pictures of your family, and most importantly, shared acquaintances."

People were a little less honest on dating sites andless honest still on anonymous chat sites. People were theleast likely to be honest on "sexual communication" websiteslike Craigslist's casual encounters.

What about our expectations of others' honesty online?

The short answer is that our expectations about others'honesty tend to mirror our beliefs about our own honesty.In other words, on sites where we believe we'rebeing honest, we're more likely to expect honesty from others.

But across the board, our expectations of others' honesty were pretty low.Between 55 and 90 per centof participants in the study believed that others were lying at least some of the timeabout their age, gender, activities, interestsand appearance.

The most commonly expected lie isappearance 90per cent of participantsexpected others to lie about what they look like.

But perhaps most fascinating about this study is its finding that our expectations of otherpeople's honesty influencesour own honestywhen we think otherpeople are lying online, we're more likely to lie ourselves.

Does this study explain why people are dishonest?

According to Drouin,most people reported lying online in order to make themselves appear better.

"They wanted to be cooler. They wanted to be more beautiful. They wanted to be sexier. They wanted to give an appearance of a life that was better than the life that they were leading," she said.

But there were other reasons too.

"Others said that they lied because they just thought everyone lies online. Thisis the place where lying is standard."

Why is it important to understand online deception?

If we have a better understanding of dishonesty onlineand the degree to which other people expectdishonesty onlinewe can be less naive in our online interactions.

But there may be something deeper at work here.Research suggests there's a difference between the lies we tell face-to-face, and the lies we tell online. Face-to-face lies are often spontaneous, whereas online lines can require more planning. They're more calculated.

Much of our understanding about human relationships is based on studying face-to-face interactions in the physical world.But as more and more aspects of our lives move online, it's important to understand how the medium itself can impact our relationships especially when we consider that we have a generation of people who are growing up in a world where most socializing happens on the internet.

And if lying and deception is the default behaviour,Drouin thinks it could be having a profound effect on trust in relationships andthat's something worth better understanding.