Is Your Online Date Telling the Truth?

“How much dishonesty do you expect when interacting with people online? Probably a lot. The anonymity that the web can provide is notorious for facilitating deception in chat rooms and other virtual venues.”C. B. Miller, The New York Times,Aug. 6, 2021

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key

Credit- Illustration by Nicholas Konrad:The New York Times; photograph by Vladans:Getty Images

 

Excerpt: Is Your Crush on OkCupid Telling You the Truth? By Christian B. Miller, The New York Times,Aug. 6, 2021

“Even when people present their real identities online, as they often do on social media or online dating websites, we doubt the veracity of much of what they say. When the psychologist Michelle Drouin asked people to estimate the percentage of people who were always honest on social media, the average answer was 2 percent. For online dating, it dropped to zero.

This cynicism is mistaken. Despite the proliferationof blatantly false information in certain regions of the internet, research suggests that the content on many online platforms is remarkably trustworthy.

Consider online dating sites. In a 2008 study, the communication professor Catalina Toma and her colleagues found that about 80 percent of participants with online dating profiles lied about their height, weight or age — but usually only to a very small extent (less than one inch off on height and 0.55 years on age, on average).

Something similar is true of the employment website LinkedIn. In a 2012 study by the communication researchers Jamie Guillory and Jeffrey Hancock, participants made either a traditional résumé, a LinkedIn profile that was publicly viewable or a LinkedIn profile that was viewable only by the researchers. It turned out that the rates of lying were roughly equal in all three groups (about three lies, on average, per résumé)… What explains the low rates of dishonesty online? It could be, of course, that most of us are just honest people in general. But if that were true, deception would be rare in anonymous online settings, too, and it isn’t.

A more likely explanation is that when you identify yourself online, your behavior can become very publicly exposed.”

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

 

NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.

Level: Intermediate – Advanced


Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.


Time: Approximately 60 minutes.


Materials: Student handout (from this lesson) and access to news article.


Objective: Students will read and discuss the article with a focus on improving reading comprehension and improving oral skills. At the end of the lesson students will express their personal views on the topic through group work and writing.

 Predictions: Using a Pre-reading Organizer

Directions: Examine the title of the post and of the actual article. Next examine  any photos. Write a paragraph describing what you think this article will discuss. A pre-reading organizer may be used.

Pre-reading chart by J. Swann

 

II. While Reading Activities

Word Inference

Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.

  1. How much dishonesty do you expect when interacting with people online?
  2. The anonymity that the web can provide is notorious for facilitating deception in chat rooms.
  3. There are many virtual venues.
  4. Despite the proliferation of false information in regions of the internet, content on many online platforms is trustworthy.
  5. LinkedIn résumés, however, were less deceptive.
  6. Facebook profiles were highly correlated with the users’ actual personality traits.
  7. What explains the low rates of dishonesty online?
  8. Most of us want to be thought of as honest people.
  9. We have expectations about the trustworthiness of online communication.
  10. People are searching for authentic relationships.

 Grammar Focus: Structure and Usage

Directions: The following groups of sentences are from the article. One of the sentences in each group contains a grammatical  error.  Identify the sentence (1, 2, or 3 ) from each group that contains the grammatical error.

I

  1. People sometimes present their real identities online.
  2. We doubt the veracity of much of what they say.
  3. This cynicism are mistaken.

II

  1. Something similar is true of the employment website LinkedIn.
  2. LinkedIn résumés was less deceptive.
  3. Facebook has  surprisingly low levels of dishonesty.

III

  1. When you identify yourself online, your behavior can become publicly exposed.
  2. Lying online creates an heightened repetitional risk.
  3. Deception online is not as widespread as we might expect.

 

Reading Comprehension Identify The  Speakers

Directions: Read the following quotes from the speakers in the article. Then identify the speakers.

  1. She asked people to estimate the percentage of people who were always honest on social media.
  2. This person found that about 80 percent of participants with online dating profiles lied about their height, weight or age — but usually only to a very small extent.
  3. This team conducted a program where participants made either a traditional résumé, a LinkedIn profile that was publicly viewable or a LinkedIn profile that was viewable only by the researchers. It turned out that the rates of lying were roughly equal in all three groups (about three lies, on average, per résumé).

 

Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing

Directions: Have  students discuss the following questions/statements. Afterwards,  students share their thoughts as a class. To reinforce the ideas, students can write an essay on one of the topics mentioned.

  1. Have you ever used an online dating service? If yes, describe your experience.
  2. According to research how much of the content on online platforms truthful?
  3. In some cases, it  was found to be even be more trustworthy than which other types of communication?
  4. What was surprising about information found on Facebook?
  5. In the areas of work experiences and responsibilities which online media website was less deceptive?
  6. What percentage of participants with online dating profiles lied about their height, weight or age?
  7. What explains the low rates of dishonesty online?
  8. List any new information that you have learned after reading this article.

ANSWER KEY

Category: Education