Women being downright dishonest about their age is nothing new. It happens all the time, but it is nothing else than deceitful. According to Sophie Van Der Zee, assistant professor at the Behavioural Economics Group at Erasmus University Rotterdam, one in five people lie about their age on online dating platforms. As such, dating, is the setting in which people tend to lie most about their age. But they do so as well in their jobs.
Professor Sophie van der Zee shows in her paper 'When lying feels the right thing to do' that people tend to behave more dishonest when they feel rejected. This is also the case when it comes to lying about your age, for example during a job interview or a first date. If you have been rejected once because of your age, the chance that you will remain silent about your age or lie about it the next times increases significantly. As such, it is not vanity which drives the lie, it is the desperation to be treated fairly. "If you were rejected based on something you feel is discrimination rather than a fair judgment, then people are more likely to lie," says Sophie van Der Zee.
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Read the entire article on Refinery29, 4 December 2018
