Stupid Government Spending

Isn't it nice to know that our tax dollars were used for a study showing that - gasp! - that people are not totally honest when using online dating sites. Maybe the next taxpayer-financed study can investigate whether it's hotter at the equator. The Washington Post reports on this boondoggle (though only about the results, of course, not about the waste of taxpayer money):

It won't surprise anyone who's tried online dating to learn that eight out of 10 people lie somewhere in their profiles, according to a series of studies funded in part by the National Science Foundation. And it didn't surprise Jeffrey T. Hancock, a communications professor at Cornell University who conducted the research over the last few years and explained the findings in a NSF webcast earlier this month. Fabrications "have been driving human behavior for millennia," Hancock says in a phone interview. "It's new bottles, in a way, but very old wine."