When Your Date Looks Nothing Like His or Her Picture

March 20, 2009 -- Blind dates can be both exciting and nerve-racking, especially if you met your date online. But what happens when you finally meet that special someone face-to-face, and your date looks nothing like his or her profile picture?

In this "What Would You Do?" social experiment, ABC News worked with Justin Dubler and Carrie Goldstein, who are both single, living in Manhattan and looking for love on the Internet. The attractive young professionals both wrote user profiles with details about their character, lifestyle and relationship goals, and, of course, they included a picture, perhaps the most important part of all.

"The second they see your picture and they like it, then they'll look at your profile," Goldstein said. "The first thing I look at is the picture to see if I have any sexual attraction to them, then I dig a little deeper to see what they're all about."

With so much riding on the personal profile, it is easy to imagine people embellishing physical characteristics. Some online daters use photos from earlier years, thinner days, or simply photos that make them look more attractive than they truly are.

As Dubler searched through scores of profiles, he said, "I don't know if their pictures are for real or what. Sometimes it's easy to tell that these are the best pictures they've ever taken of themselves."

For our "What Would You Do?" experiment, Dubler and Goldstein each arranged five dates with potential love interests. They agreed to meet at Via Emilia, a chic restaurant in New York City. Then we switched things up.

Instead of meeting the person they met online, Dubler's dates met Charlie, an actor hired by ABC, and Goldstein's dates met Sabrina, also an actor. It was nearly impossible for their dates not to notice the actors were impostors, especially because Charlie was seven inches shorter than Dubler and Sabrina nine inches taller than Goldstein. The actors were also about 10 years older than Dubler and Goldstein.