[xor1]

>The truth is you're really doctoring your images to satisfy your weak ego.

I don't think this is true if everyone is doing it. It's like an arms race, you have to do it just to reach a baseline, as opposed to doing it to stand out.

Something similar that occurs in online dating is that guys add 1-2 inches to their height. The vast majority of men do this. I'm somewhere between 5'10 and 5'11, and most people my height list themselves as 6'+, so I started doing it too, and there's been a noticeable difference in the number of matches I get.

If I put my actual height, women will assume I'm under 5'9, because every guy who is 5'8 is listing themselves as 5'10.

You can claim that I'm being "insecure", but I've never been dishonest about my actual height in person. I used to just round down and put 5'10 because I really didn't care, and I'd always get remarks about how I was taller than they expected. Funnily enough, lots of people who are the same height as me really do believe they are 6' because this exaggeration has become so common, and the average adult doesn't measure their height properly and just goes off what everyone else says.