The Influence of Height: Perceptions and Attractions
Evolution has shown that bigger animals will dominate in a fight as well as be more successful in attracting a mate. Anthropologist Boguslaw Pawlowski, “believes that the right ratio between male and female height is an evolutionary signal indicating the best genes and highest fertility rates, and is a predictor for the ideal size of children” (Mistiaen, 2018). This is prevalent in modern society, as there seems to be a correlation of taller males being more successful in attracting females and reproducing. Additionally, with everything being so accessible nowadays such as online shopping, it is no surprise that we can essentially look for a mate online as well. Online dating sites provide a multitude of people’s photos and a short biography of statements that they composed and we make a decision on whether they are ‘date-worthy.’ Not knowing anything substantial about the individual but whether we like what we see, we make a choice of whether we want to pursue them.
Appearances are the start of any attraction. Similar within the animal kingdom, the males will attract females by the color of their feathers or attempt to court the female with an exotic dance. If appearances prove to be significant in reproductive success then the question of, “does size really matter” can be implemented within research analysis. Therefore, does being tall give you an advantage in the dating field? Women have been shown to gravitate towards men taller than them but when looking at homosexual couples does height play a key factor as well? Will age influence this hypothesis? When getting older, individuals may feel like they are running out of time or their fraternal clock is ticking and therefore may settle for someone of less than what they originally desired; or maybe with age, superficial looks just are not of importance. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether perceptions of height play a role in sexual attraction and reproductive success. The research is significant because it has the potential to reveal a bias that a person may have unknowingly towards height and therefore educate them on not being so quick to judge another.
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Theory Development: Evolution Theory
The theory relevant in the current research is evolution theory. This theory was introduced by Charles Darwin in his scientific literature, The Origin of Species, in 1859. Within his work he promoted various hypotheses that were used to explain the success of the human race through reproduction. His most famous theory, “Social Darwinism” was originally advertised by Herbet Spencer, a 19th century philosopher before Darwin claimed the term himself (Fancher & Rutherford, 2017). Social Darwinism refers to, “survival of the fittest,” meaning only the strongest people or things survive. Survival of the fittest is used to support the process of natural selection; organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring (Fancher & Rutherford, 2017). This is relevant because when looking for a partner, most people engage in sexual selection. When choosing a partner Darwin suggests quality of mate selection plays a role in passing down characteristics favourable for survival. This would be similar to artificial selection or selective breeding.
People are looking for certain qualities in their partner to ensure the health and survival of their future children. However, it is interesting that across cultures there is evidence of a variation hypothesis, explaining that males have been more modified by evolution than females and tend to show more variability among themselves (Fancher & Rutherford, 2017). This is shown in some bug and bird species such as peacocks or ducks. The male will have brighter colors or bigger feathers than the female and this suggests that they need to work harder to attract a mate. Lastly, Darwin introduced the complementary hypothesis, that is a widely held view that men and women have evolved to have different but complementary psychological characteristics (Fancher & Rutherford, 2017).
Though this pertains to the psychological differences between partners it still insuitates that the couple would complement one another through their differences which can be implemented through things such as height. Overall, Darwin concludes that only the strong survive to reproduce. This can be represented through physical strength, mental ability or for the sake of this paper, through height. For example, a taller male would be able to ideally protect his family better and due to his height is well nourished and healthy therefore bound to reproduce healthy children.
Height as Related to Self-Perceived Mate Value and Attractiveness
It has been hypothesized that men’s height is associated with their dominance and success rates. Therefore the researchers were attempting to find a relationship between height and mate value. Height acted as the independent variable whereas mate value was the dependent variable. The sample consisted of 66 couples, ages ranged from 18-33. 82% of the couples were dating, 6% were married, and 12% were cohabiting (Buunk, Fernández & Muñoz-Reyes, 2019). After completing the standard consent forms the individuals were to fill out questionnaires and were measured for their own height. The first assessment was concerning self-perceived attractiveness and then perceived attractiveness for their partner. The next assessment calculated self-perceived mate value and the characteristics desired in a relationship.
The researchers then tried to analyze any sex differences within self-perceived mate value, self-perceived attractiveness, and height with a paired sample t-test (Buunk, Fernandez & Muñoz-Reyes, 2019). There was no relationship between mate value and attractiveness. However, the males were significantly taller than their partners but there was no hard evidence to support the ongoing theory. The researchers conducted more calculations to analyze how height is related to self-perceived mate value and self-perceived attractiveness among men and women. To test for linear and quadratic effects, a regression analysis was utilized. As for women, it appeared that there was a, “linear relationship between height and mate value, F(1, 63) 5.31, R2 .08, p .03, Cohen’s f .29, as well as a significant quadratic relationship, F(2, 62) 3.41, R2 .10, p .04; Cohen’s f .33” (Buunk, Fernández & Muñoz-Reyes, 2019). Among men, there was a lack of significance towards height upon mate value: F(1, 58) 0.60, R2 .01,p .44; for the quadratic effect, F(2, 57) 0.31, R2 .11, p .74 (Buunk, Fernández & Muñoz-Reyes, 2019).
The results concluded that taller men and women perceived themselves as more attractive. When looking for mates, the hypothesis that height would be associated with mate-value was supported by women but not among men. The limitations of this study include the limited sample size of only people living in Chile, Santiago. The researchers discuss that the study would need to be replicated within other countries before being able to generalize the conclusions, due to cultural differences. The research’s relevance to the topic of height perceptions is prevalent by reflecting that mate-value and height was supported by the women’s responses, providing a basis for the hypothesis that women will be more concerned with height in a partner than men will be.
Height Predicts Jealousy Differently for Men and Women
In the journal article, the researchers attempt to examine if there is a correlation between height and jealousy. Height was the independent variable and the level of jealousy was the dependent variable. They sampled 100 men and 100 women. The average heights were, for men, 5’11” and for women, the mean was 5’6” (Buunk et al., 2008). To measure jealousy the researchers asked, “In general, how jealous are you in your current relationship?” The possible responses ranged from (1) not jealous to (6) morbidly jealous (Buunk et al., 2008). Men’s and women’s responses did not differ by much. The men’s mean was 3.05 and women’s mean was 3.37. An additional question assessed individuals' perceptions of their partner's sexual interest in others, utilizing the item, “To what extent do you think your partner is sexually interested in individuals of the opposite sex?” (1=not at all, 5=very much). Men’s mean calculated to 1.92 and the women’s was 2.13, therefore women perceived their partner’s to be sexually interested in others, slightly more than men did.
The results concluded that there was a negative relationship between height and jealousy among the men participants. Among women, there was also a negative linear relationship between height and jealousy but it was nonsignificant. However, there was significance in a quadratic relationship, with [F(2,95)=4.35, p=.016] (Buunk et al., 2008). When calculating if height was related to perceptions of their partner's sexual interest in others, shorter women reflected higher perceptions of their partners' sexual interest in other women and as height increased, jealousy decreased. Overall, taller men were less jealous while the extremes of the spectrum of women being very tall or very short were more jealous. Women who were of average height were the least jealous. There was also a curvilinear relationship between women's height and perceptions of their partner's interest in others. Average height women were less likely to perceive potential infidelity in their partners.
The researchers acknowledged the weakness of their jealousy assessment. They reported that the measure may have assessed instead, “how often participants' partners exhibited behavior that provoked jealousy” (Buunk et al., 2008). The research relates to the topic by revealing the idea that height may correlate more significantly with self-esteem. If an individual is taller, consequently having higher self-esteem they won't be jealous in their relationships. This can also lead to the idea that a taller person will commonly have more options for partners and therefore will feel more confident in relationships.
The Effect of Physical Height on Workplace Success and Income: Preliminary Test of a Theoretical Model
The researchers hypothesize that people of taller height will consequently have higher career success through a perceived status. The reasoning behind this is that because of someone’s taller height, they will have higher self-esteem and social esteem. This will affect how a supervisor evaluates their work performance, therefore, leading to more promotions and success (Judge & Cable, 2004). The independent variable was height and the dependent variable was manager’s evaluations. To conduct the research they did a meta-analysis study. The researchers gathered previous research and an abundance of articles to analyze for a correlation. They utilized Hunter and Scmidt’s (1990) methodology to correct the data they were given through the articles based on how reliable the answers were. If height was self-reported than it was weighed at 80% reliable versus heights reported by a doctor or physician. As for the reliability of supervisory ratings of job performance and leadership, they used estimates by Viswesvaran, Ones and Schmidt’s (1996). For the objective measures of job performance they took advantage of Hunter, Schmidt and Judiesch’s (1990) estimate. For perceived status the researchers analyzed Haug and Sussman’s (1971) estimate of the correlation of occupational status (Judge & Cable, 2004).
The results reflected that across all the studies they analyzed that height had an uncorrected correlation of .22 and a corrected correlation of .26. The “results revealed that social esteem (p=.41) had the strongest correlation with height, followed by leadership (p=.24) and then performance (p=.18)” (Judge & Cable, 2004). The results supported that height was related to leadership. Height also showed a higher relationship with social esteem. When testing if height was more strongly related to subjective outcomes than objective outcomes, the researchers concluded that subjective ratings had higher validity than extrinsic measures. The limitations to this study is that due to it being composed of various literatures, the researchers note that there was not a lot of existing studies on the topic and that there should be more direct experimental research conducting correlations between height and self esteem as well as height and job performance. This study relates to the idea that height provides higher self esteem as well as social esteem which creates a halo effect. This is important in the current research, to provide an explanation of why people seek taller mates.
References
Buunk, A. P., Fernandez, A. M., & Muñoz-Reyes, J. A. (2019). Height as related to
self-perceived mate value and attractiveness. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 13(1), 93–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000132
Buunk, A. P., Park, J. H., Zurriaga, R., Klavina, L., & Massar, K. (2008). Height predicts jealousy differently for men and women. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(2), 133–139. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.11.006
Fancher, R. E., & Rutherford, A. (2017). Pioneers of Psychology: A History (5th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Incorporated.
Judge, T. A., & Cable, D. M. (2004). The Effect of Physical Height on Workplace Success and
Income: Preliminary Test of a Theoretical Model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(3), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.428
Mistiaen, V. (2018, August 27). Height matters when picking a mate. Retrieved from
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-06-11-0306110038-story.html
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