Imagine being a Dutch male who is only 180cm (and shrinking with posture and age!) when the average for my cohort is 184 cm.
Saying that for a friend, obviously.
But no, I've never felt the need to lie about it, since that would NOT normally come up at all. Heightism is definitely a thing though. You will probably know that CEO's tend to be taller than average. What you don't take into account is that said CEO's are likely selected from a larger pool of already taller people.
I was at a fair in Luxembourg (city), and as a Dutch person you think you're basically the baseline for height or at the very least you're not going to be significantly shorter than any group of people, but I swear to god, I've never seen so many taller people in one place (like a full head taller, so 2m10 or 6'10" ! ). It was legitimately unsettling in a way, because it basically demonstrated a direct correlation between the industries that are based there and height. Most of that industry being the financial sector.
And no, there is zero correlation between height and competence (see also: Comey and his wonderful career at the FBI). So you're looking at literal height bias being used as a hiring tool with no regard whatsoever for what the actual job is supposed to be.
I really hope I misjudged that anecdotal oddity, or that maybe it was some kind of convention or something.
But yeah, the Western (!) obsession with height is pretty damn bizarre. Might come from the whole 'Gothic' building style or something (leading to the bias that 'tall is good' or something), or some other weird cognitive bias.
There's no real reason why it exists, and it certainly shouldn't be a thing to put on a dating profile, but I might be biased in that regard.
