Whenever a bloke is asked about his height it can illicit a mixed reaction.
Some don't have any problem with uttering the three digits in centimetres or the two to three digits in feet and inches.
While others might um and ah before saying they're six foot.
The same goes with penis size; it can sometimes be a little inflated from reality.
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A study has actually looked at this phenomenon and realised 'bodily markers' are self-reported and are often a little bigger than what's actually going on.
Researchers have posted their findings in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, and, in addition to looking at expectation versus reality, they also took into account whether the participants would be more honest if they were paid more.
The authors wrote: "All self-report measures except weight were consistently found to be above the population mean (height and penis size) or the scale midpoint (athleticism).
"Additionally, the participant pool that received the lower (vs. higher) monetary reward showed a particularly powerful deviation from the population mean in penis size and were significantly more likely to report their erect and flaccid penis size to be larger than the claimed but not verified world record of 34 cm.
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"These findings indicate that studies relying on men’s self-reported measures of certain body parts should be interpreted with great caution, but that higher monetary rewards seem to improve data quality slightly for such measures."
They specifically chose 'bodily markers' like height, weight and penis size because they were 'linked to masculinity'.
The researchers had a look into existing data about the psychology behind some people's obsession with penis size and deduced that many men believe in the 'notion that size seems to matter'.
The team also highlighted how exaggerated height is often employed by men on dating sites 'to boost their chances on the mating market'.
"The current work contributes to the literature not so much regarding if participants would exaggerate certain male markers of masculinity but rather the magnitude of this exaggeration," the study said in its introduction.
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They discovered that the mean self-reporting penis size was 21.1 per cent above the wider Danish population mean.
That is a humungous deviation.
They concluded: "It is possible that men, on average, are more inclined to lie about their penis size than their height, weight, or athleticism, considering that the penis is typically concealed and hence easier to lie about without getting caught in everyday interactions, whereas people cannot easily hide their height, weight, and body shape."
Food for thought.
Topics: News
Stewart Perrie