Does Size Matter? Men's and Women's Views on Penis Size Across the Lifespan

Lever, Janet
Frederick, David A.
Peplau, Letitia Anne

¹Department of Sociology, California State University at Los Angeles (CSULA)
²Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

³Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David A. Frederick, Department of Psychology, University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563. E-mail: [email protected].

Those interested in a parallel paper on breast satisfaction among women in this sample (Frederick, Peplau, & Lever, 2005a) and in additional papers on body image from this and other projects should contact David Frederick. We thank Elle magazine for access to the data from the Elle.com/MSNBC.com Sex and Body Image Survey. We are grateful to the UCLA Graduate Division; the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development; the Department of Psychology; and the Communication Studies Program for providing financial support for David Frederick. We would also like to thank Sheila Allameh, Anna Berezovskaya, Monica Birnbaum, Iva Boteva, Lesley Bulechek, Lisa Burklund, Jeremy Casey, David Creswell, Erika Forster, Martie Haselton, Johanna Jarcho, Kathleen Lambert, Henry Madrid, Traci Mann, Tara Mulrenan, Leila Sadeghi-Azar, Janet Tomiyama, Andrew Ward, and Erika Westling for their assistance with this database and the manuscript of this article. We are grateful to Carol Edwards, who helped to create the database.

Received Date: August 15, 2005;Revised Date: January 30, 2006;Accepted Date: February 7, 2006

Psychology of Men & Masculinity 7(3):p 129-143, July 2006.

The media equate a man's penis size with his power and masculinity. Views about penis size were assessed in an Internet survey of 52,031 heterosexual men and women. Most men (66%) rated their penis as average, 22% as large, and 12% as small. Self-reported penis size was correlated positively with height and negatively with body fat level. Whereas 85% of women were satisfied with their partner's penis size, only 55% of men were satisfied with their penis size, 45% wanted to be larger, and 0.2% wanted to be smaller. Satisfaction did not vary across age groups from 18 to 65. Men reporting a larger-than-average penis rated their appearance most favorably, suggesting a possible confidence effect of perceived large penis size.