When it comes to finding love, a few white lies here and there, especially in the getting-to-know-you stage, is pretty standard. However, according to a new study, Gen Z and millennials are lying about one major thing in their effort to appear more desirable.

Most people try their hardest to come off just a little bit more impressive than they actually are. The temptation to make little tweaks to the truth can be hard to resist. Adding an inch to your height or stretching the truth about your guitar-playing abilities is pretty standard. But in an effort to seem more appealing to dates, a whole lot of single young people are stretching the truth about their finances, and that’s pretty major.

Study finds most people lie about their finances to make themselves seem more desirable.

This isn’t the kind of lie that has a date booking a fancy restaurant or wearing expensive shoes to impress. This goes way beyond that. A Credit One Bank survey of 1,000 young adults revealed that 51% admit to faking their wealth or exaggerating their financial success. 

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Gen Z leads at 54%, compared to 48% of millennials. Additionally, a staggering 37% say they’d be willing to overdraft their account or plunge into debt just to impress someone on a date. 

Let that sink in for a second. Singles are flat-out lying about how rich they are to impress dates, and they are so invested in the lie that they are willing to put themselves in debt just to keep up the ruse! What exactly do they think is going to happen if things actually get serious?

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Men seem to spend beyond their means to impress their dates.

The survey also found a gender gap in taking financial risks while dating. While 46% of men admit they’d willingly overdraft their accounts to impress a date, only 28% of women would do the same.

Overall, 38% of respondents admitted to going into debt or damaging their credit score to impress someone, with 22% doing so specifically for a romantic partner. Men also reported taking credit hits for love at higher rates than women (41% versus 35%). In fact, according to a survey from Tawfiky, a matchmaking service, women want their ideal partner to earn $110,000 while men expect theirs to earn $90,000.

A quarter of respondents said they expected even higher salaries, saying their ideal partner should earn over $150,000. Then there were 1 in 10 respondents who were holding out for $250,000, and 1 in 20 who wanted $500,000 or more. 

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There’s also a discrepancy regarding a person’s credit score.

More than half of respondents to Credit One Bank’s survey admitted that a high credit score actually makes someone more attractive. About 24% of young adults won’t even consider a serious relationship unless their partner’s credit score hits 700 or above. Another 24% don’t care about credit scores at all when dating.

A study by Freecreditscore.com found that women were more likely than men to care about a person’s credit score when dating, with 75% of single women saying they would not date a man if his credit score was hurting. Men, on the other hand, felt the opposite. Only 57% of men said they would turn down a date with a woman because of her credit score.

However, among Gen Z and millennials, 73% said they fully understand what a credit score is and how it impacts their lives. When it comes to sharing that information, though, privacy trumps everything else. More than half (54%) would rather not disclose their credit score or financial situation to a romantic partner until things get serious.

With how the dating landscape has changed over the last couple of years, finances entering the discussion when it comes to relationships doesn’t feel surprising at all. After all, money has consistently been a compatibility factor. 

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Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.