Why do men lie about their height?

men-thumbThis is a phenomenon I first became aware of last year. I was on an internet dating website and a girl repeatedly winked at me, I winked back and sent her an email but didn’t hear anything back, I sent a follow up message to ask if her computer had accidentally multi winked me.

She responded, saying that she was initially attracted to me, however when she checked my height (5’9) she thought I’d be too short for her. She was 5’5! Her reasoning was that I was an “internet 5’9”, meaning that in real life I’d be 5’7 or less which was too short for her. I am actually 5’9 and have been measured but she said that she was speaking from experience. This was the first time I’d heard about this “internet height” reference.

Men have been lying about their height almost for as long as they have been lying about their salaries (another thing I don’t understand to be written about another time).

I got my female friends round and told them about that particular conversation and I got an education. Apparently it’s not uncommon for men to exaggerate their height on the internet by a few inches. Some of the stories were unbelievable. The girls agreed that if they met a guy on the internet they wouldn’t be surprised if he was up to 2 inches shorter than he actually said he was. I had a friend who recently went on a date and the guy was 5 inches shorter than his profile (real life 5’6, internet height 5’11). My personal favourite, and I quote verbatim was, “A guy said he was 5’4 and from the picture he looked like a dwarf, he was holding the phone so high to take this picture and yet the floor looked really close”

It took me a while to understand this whole, lying about the height thing. My thinking is that, if I lie about my height, I’ll be found out as soon as the person lays eyes on me, so I’ve never done it, neither have I ever thought about doing it but apparently there is a bit of an epidemic in the dating world. Men have been lying about their height almost for as long as they have been lying about their salaries (another thing I don’t understand to be written about another time).

I did my series of interviews and 3 out of 5 men admitted that they had lied about their height at some point. The reason behind it was because they were bowing down to the pressures of society. Women want, tall, dark and handsome, so most men who are under 5’10 which is the average, minimum requested height exaggerate and hope that when they meet the woman, she falls for their personality. The other reason that the men said that they lie about their height is that more women will talk to them online if they say that they are between 5’10 and 6’2. I personally don’t believe in faking your height.

To keep up with me, feel free to find me either on, www.facebook.com/thebreakuprecipe or on twitter @munirbello1983

About the author

Munir Bello is our resident male dating blogger: ‘Men Uncovered Blog’. Each week he will answer the most common questions posed by women about men. Munir Bello is the Author of The Break Up Recipe, A 5 star rated romantic comedy about break ups and relationships from a mans point of view, available on Amazon as a download or paperback. . Follow Munir on Twitter @munirbello1983 or www.facebook.com/thebreakuprecipe
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