I tried not to think about this topic in detail, but things changed a couple days ago when a good friend of mine joined OkCupid, the dating website. My friend, R* suddenly mentioned the website to me over coffee last week and I helped R write up a profile. R then proceeded to answer approximately 200 questions the website came up with and decided to stop after it got too repetitive. The next day I could see R messaging quite the number of people on OkCupid. I noticed that the website had rated the compatibility between R and other potential interests, and I commented on the list of people who scored variably on compatibility with R. R noticed it too, but told me about a person rated on the lower end of compatibility who R dated in the past. Interestingly though, R thought that this person was great and that they actually got along quite well.

Going back to R’s responses on that questionnaire, R was definitely projecting R’s ideal self more than R’s true self. Does the test become more valid with an unlimited number of questions — so much that a slight amount of deception will be covered up?

*I have used the letter “R” to keep my friend’s identity anonymous