Melbourne, September 16 : An Australian study suggests that men seem to be more concerned about what their mates think rather than their partners, when it comes to the stature and size of their penis.

Annabel Chan, a PhD student at Melbourne''s Victoria University who obtained penis measurements from more than 500 men worldwide, describes this phenomenon as the "locker room syndrome".

She has revealed that the men also answered questions designed to probe the link between penis size, male body image and mental health.

"It''s the locker room syndrome," the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

"That''s when they feel they should be bigger whereas when they are on their own they are actually quite happy with themselves," she added.

During the study, the researchers asked the men, aged 18 to 76, to indicate their ideal body size, and compare that to what they believed other men would nominate.

About 65 per cent of the participants said that their ideal male body size would be smaller than the ideal size suggested by others.

The men were also asked whether they believed they would be a better sexual partner if they had a bigger penis.

Chan said: "(The men were) more concerned about how their overall body-size compared to the perceived male ideal than they are about how their size might impact on their sexual relations."

The online survey asked men to measure their erect penises.

Chan said that she expected to receive some overstated measurements, but the self-reported data fell within the normal range of about 10 to 15cm.

"I thought people would report themselves as being very big, but they have been quite average," she said.

The study showed that men with larger than average penises also reported higher levels of self-esteem, better general health and higher overall body satisfaction.

It further revealed that men who were happy with the size of their penis were also less likely to have used an online dating service, or to have used Viagra.

Overweight men had lower self-esteem, higher body dissatisfaction and greater use of the Internet for socialising, said the researchers.

"We have relatively little data about the body image of men because most of the research in this area concentrates on women," Chan said.

"It means men don''t really get much help in terms of therapy, and options out there to get help," she added. (ANI)