It has always been known, but now science has confirmed it.
Men lie about their penis size and height, according to a new study.
Researchers in Denmark found that the average man exaggerates the length of his penis by about a fifth.
They also add about 2 inches to their height, a lie many women who use dating apps will be familiar with.
When self-reported, men exaggerated the size of their penises by more than 20 percent, the study found. They would also slightly exaggerate their height (file photo)
Although the average penis is now longer than in previous years, researchers found that many men lie exorbitantly.
In their study of 224 men, 26 said their penises were more than 12 inches (30 cm) long. One brave man even said his penis was over half a mile long.
They also lie about their height a bit and add a few inches.
Researchers, who published their findings in the journal Boundaries in psychologywent into the study aiming to prove the age-old conjecture that men lie about their physical prowess.
They collected data from 224 Danish men through an online survey. They then compared the average of this study population with the average measurements in Denmark.
If every member of the study answered honestly, the average height, weight, and penis size in their population would be the same as the national figures.
But when the answers were averaged, they found that many men added a little extra to their measurements.
More than two dozen men said their penises measured more than 34 cm – 13 inches – the size of the longest penis ever recorded.
In one case, a man said his penis was 9,000 cm.
These men had to be removed from the research sample because their blatant falsehoods would ruin the data set.
Researchers also removed men who spent less than ten minutes or more than four hours on the survey.
In these cases, researchers say the amount of time it took the men to piece together the answer gives reason to doubt their validity.
The final data set included 191 men.
Taken at face value, the results suggest that the average man has a penis that is 18.02 cm or 7.1 inches long.
This is 21 percent longer than the Danish average of 14.88 cm or 5.85 inches.
Men also lied about their height, albeit to a much lesser extent. The average Danish man is 180.4 cm, while the average from the study’s data set was 180.4 cm.
Although the researchers consider this difference to be statistically significant, the measurements have been converted to 5’11 in both cases.
The participants were also likely to exaggerate their athletic prowess. When answering how athletic they were on a scale of one to ten, a majority answered a score of more than five – above the average that many of them are really up to.
Interestingly, men told the truth about how much they weighed.
“The finding that participants did not overreport their weight, but probably slightly exaggerated their height, also implies that they were attempting to present themselves as more physically fit,” researchers wrote.
They note that this means that researchers and doctors alike cannot trust men to accurately report this information, and that it should instead be professionally measured.
“Our results suggest that private data regarding bodily signals of masculinity can only be reliably collected in the laboratory, where conditions can be fully controlled,” the researchers conclude.
“Given our findings, scientific studies using self-reported data on penis size should be interpreted with great caution.”