You start to judge him

When your first impression of him is based on scraps of information online, it’s likely to be inaccurate, says Violet Lim, CEO and co-founder of dating company, Lunch Actually Group. For instance, you might assume he’s sporty because there are shots of him surfing on Facebook – without knowing that that was his first beach getaway in years. Or, you might write him off as a player simply because he’s got way more female friends than male ones in his contact list – when in fact, it’s because he works in a femaledominated industry.

“Checking out a date on the Internet ‘compresses time’,” says Jeana Frost, a media researcher from Boston University. “Based on what you find online, you based on something trivial, explains Michael Norton, associate professor of business administration in the marketing unit at Harvard Business School, who also has a PhD in psychology. But when you meet him and realise he’s just a “regular person”, you might be disappointed.