Dr Rory McGloin from The University of Connecticut led a study that looked at the relationship between trust and appearance for those who use online dating sites to meet people. 305 men and women aged 17 to 36 stated that trust is an important part of a relationship for them. Yet when they got into more specifics with participants the feedback was sometimes contradictory to this.
Men usually felt the profiles with the most attractive women were less trustworthy. This led the researchers to the conclusion that misleading and untruthful profiles are to be expected in online dating. They also found that men were not deterred by their perceptions of untruthfulness and continued to have a greater desire to date the more attractive, yet less honest women. Therefore the conclusion was a resounding choice by men of physical attractiveness over trust. Even if they suspected she was less than honest about herself, it was worth the risk if her picture portrayed her as beautiful.
On the flip side, when men enhanced their profiles to make themselves look more attractive, women were more likely to perceive them to be both more attractive AND more trustworthy. No wonder so many women have blind spots when it comes to bad boys. If he’s cute, he must be trustworthy too.