General discussion
The current studies set out to determine whether the language used by online
daters in their self-descriptions provides information about the deceptiveness of their
profiles. This question was addressed using both computerized linguistic analyses
(Study 1) and human coding (Study 2). Although computerized analyses identified
several linguistic correlates of profile deception, human judges were unable to detect
daters’ trustworthiness based on the written component of the profile, and they relied
mostly on linguistic cues unrelated to profile deception. These two studies advance
theory along several fronts, including the role of technological affordances in the
production of linguistic cues to deception, the relationship between deception and
self-presentation, and how individuals make judgments of trustworthiness in online
contexts.