> The phenomenon of men exaggerating their height is so pervasive, it’s practically become a meme.
The dating apps have really made height a big issue. In the pre-app era of dating I don't recall people obsessing over it nearly as much. It's the only metric aside form age that is usually presented as an exact number on the apps, which makes some sense since few other metrics provide such 'useful' information.
Pretty much every other aspect of a person's body can still be obscured with the right clothes and photos (within reason). Which leads to various bits of conventional wisdom, such as men who have a hat in every photo are bald, people who don't show their teeth when the smile have bad teeth, etc. I know that I personally take my job as Photo Detective very seriously, a trait I only acquired from too many dates with people who did not look as good as their photos in real life.
Some women have a weird obsession about men being above or below 182.88 centimeters high. So as long as a random metric becomes a target, people will game and cheat such metric.
That shit oozes into countries that don't even use feet. When I saw girls dreaming of exactly 183cm I immediately knew this is cultural, they are just copying "I need at least 6'"
I don't blame guys for fudging it by an inch. Shoes and hair can easily be more than that. I once dated a woman who was 6'0 but put 5'11" on the apps because she worried 6 feet tall would scare off too many guys. It's such a minor difference in real life that it's hard to care or even feel like it's deceitful. But some guys lie by a lot more than an inch.
The dating apps have really made height a big issue. In the pre-app era of dating I don't recall people obsessing over it nearly as much. It's the only metric aside form age that is usually presented as an exact number on the apps, which makes some sense since few other metrics provide such 'useful' information.
Pretty much every other aspect of a person's body can still be obscured with the right clothes and photos (within reason). Which leads to various bits of conventional wisdom, such as men who have a hat in every photo are bald, people who don't show their teeth when the smile have bad teeth, etc. I know that I personally take my job as Photo Detective very seriously, a trait I only acquired from too many dates with people who did not look as good as their photos in real life.