A psychologist explained why men lie about their height.
Joseph Stalin wore platform shoes and retouched official photographs — historians still debate whether his height was 160 or 164 cm. Tom Cruise, according to reports, uses wooden stands on the set. Anxiety about height has accompanied perceptions of male status for centuries. But with the advent of dating apps, selection algorithms, and artificial intelligence that can assess a person's height from a snapshot, it has reached a new level. About why this happens and what the obsession with centimeters threatens is in the Izvestia article.
An age-old tradition
Men have been embellishing their height for centuries. Joseph Stalin, according to historians, wore platform shoes and retouched official photographs — presumably his height ranged from 160 to 164 cm. American President Harry Truman, who was a head taller, allegedly called him a little squishy. In Hollywood, height manipulation has long been part of the production process: according to NPR, 1940s star Alan Ladd, with a height of about 168 cm, starred in scenes with actresses who were forced to stand in trenches specially dug into the floor. Tom Cruise, according to reports, uses wooden stands on the set.
With the advent of dating apps, the growth lie has gained a new infrastructure. Now it can be measured statistically. Back in 2008, researchers found out that more than 80% of men distort physical parameters in dating profiles, and height is one of the most frequently overstated characteristics. A more recent GQ survey of 604 men aged 16 to 44 showed that 70% had ever lied about themselves on apps. Every fourth person is talking about growth.
180 cm filter
The mechanics of cheating are simple. Many women set the minimum height of a potential partner in the settings — as a rule, 180 or 183 cm. A man with a height of 177 cm is faced with a choice: be honest and drop out of the issue, or lie a little and get a chance to meet.
Women, however, have found an answer to this strategy — and a very technological one. In 2024, a life hack appeared on social media: upload four photos of a man to ChatGPT and ask him to rate his height based on body proportions and surrounding objects. Venture capitalist Justin Moore, who tested the method on ten acquaintances, reported: all estimates coincided with real growth with an error of no more than 2.5 cm.
The paradox, however, is that even the prospect of exposure at the first meeting does not stop men. The calculation, apparently, is this: once it's come to a date, it means there's a chance to like it without the cherished centimeters.
Not cheating, but compensation.
Psychologist Natalia Kucheryavaya explains: behind this phenomenon is not a desire to manipulate, but something much more vulnerable.
"People tend to embellish characteristics that they consider socially significant. For many men, height refers to just such signs. Anxiety around him usually forms in adolescence, when self-esteem becomes especially dependent on comparison with peers. Ridicule, romantic rejections, and cultural notions of masculinity play a significant role," says the expert.
Curly emphasized that it is fundamentally important not to equate height with position or income. According to her, growth cannot be changed by willpower, set as a goal, or increased through career advancement. That is why, the expert noted, lying about height is more often associated not with the desire to demonstrate a higher status, but with a basic human need for a sense of self-worth and acceptance.
When the deception is revealed, and sooner or later it happens, the man experiences not so much shame for his height as fear of rejection.
"For most people, the lie itself turns out to be more significant than the difference of a few centimeters. The paradox is that trying to protect yourself leads to even greater vulnerability," the psychologist concludes.
Tall means strong
The relationship between height and status exists on several levels at once. The evolutionary argument is straightforward: in the animal kingdom, a larger individual is more likely to dominate and survive. The French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote back in 1945 that the verticality of the body is inseparable from a sense of one's own strength and potential — "the image of a mountain as tall and straight" forms a whole system of cultural metaphors in which "to rise" means to succeed, and "to be small" means to obey.
These metaphors have measurable consequences. According to American and British studies, men above average height earn between $800-1,000 per year. They get promoted faster and are more often perceived as leaders. One study showed that kindergarten teachers considered short boys to be less capable even before they had time to prove themselves. Another study found that children as early as the age of 10 months associate a large figure with dominance.
"Society significantly exaggerates the importance of this connection, turning a statistical trend into a rigid stereotype. Social media and dating apps have made the problem more noticeable: when a person is assessed according to several questionnaire parameters, attention to growth naturally increases, and anxiety receives constant reinforcement," says Kucheryavaya.
Surgery for the sake of centimeters
Some men go further than lying in the questionnaire. The luxmaxing subculture — from the English looks maximizing, "maximizing appearance" — unites those who are ready to take drastic measures to increase their "value". The range of methods is huge: from proper nutrition and the gym to injections of anabolic steroids, facial surgery and, in the most extreme cases, surgical leg lengthening.
The operation involves intentionally fracturing the bones of the lower leg or thigh, followed by slow stretching — the bone grows in the resulting gap. The procedure allows you to add from five to fifteen centimeters of height, takes months of rehabilitation and costs from $ 50,000 to $100,000. According to the Global Wellness Institute, published in April 2026, requests for such operations increased by 300% — clinics in the USA, Turkey, Germany and South Korea have waiting lists going back to 2026. The patients are mostly men aged 18 to 34 years.
The medical community is sounding the alarm: an article in Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine, published in December 2025, called on doctors to recognize patients with signs of this ideology. Researchers at the Turing Institute have found that 44% of the content about luxmaxing on TikTok contains elements that encourage harm to one's own health.
This reality was artistically interpreted by the film "The Materialist" (2025) starring Pedro Pascal. His character, an incredibly attractive rich man, admits that he underwent height—enhancement surgery with his brother. The film does not hide the irony: the world really appreciates the high ones. The question is, what price is a person willing to pay for it?
Where does self-improvement end?
Striving for self-improvement is natural, but it is important to understand where the line lies between a healthy desire to change your appearance and excessive fixation on flaws. As Curly explained, with a normal attitude to one's own appearance, a person retains the flexibility of perception, and changes do not have a critical impact on self-esteem. At the same time, with dysmorphic experiences, attention to the perceived disadvantage becomes obsessive and begins to significantly affect the quality of life.
According to a nationwide cohort study by the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), body dysmorphic disorder triples the risk of suicide compared to the general population. Surgery does not solve the problem: many patients who have undergone leg lengthening report that they still feel "small inside" after surgery.
"In clinical practice, suffering is more often caused not by a physical feature, but by the importance that a person attaches to it. Confidence, social skills, and psychological stability affect relationships and professional fulfillment much more strongly than a few centimeters of height," the psychologist summarizes.
A few centimeters in the questionnaire is not just a number. They may be based on long-term complexes formed in adolescence, stable social stereotypes and cultural attitudes that associate masculine value with physical parameters. If it is almost impossible to change the height, then it is also difficult to reconsider the attitude towards it, but this does not require surgical intervention.
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