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Body Height and Romantic Attraction: A Meta-Analytic Test Of The Male-Taller Norm
Abstract
Two meta-analyses were conducted to assess whether females desire male romantic partners who are as tall or taller than themselves more so than males desire female romantic partners who are of equal or shorter stature than themselves. A directional significance test of the difference between the weighted mean effect sizes (rs) for males and females showed that the strength of the effect of body height on dating/mating preference was greater for females evaluating males (r=.41)than for males evaluating females (r=.36). Homogeneity tests indicated, however, that the height effect was not consistent across studies included in each of the analyses. Overall, the findings render support for the male-taller norm in romantic attraction. Directions for future research based on potential moderators of the relationship between body height and dating/mating preference are provided.
... The role of height in intersexual selection has also been explored in a large number of studies, for example, with respect to assortative mating on height (Stulp & Barret, 2016), the correlation between height and physical indices of attractiveness (like biceps circumference, see Archer & Thanzami, 2007), and sex differences in the preference for a taller or shorter mate (Courtiol, Raymond, Godelle, & Ferdy, 2010;Gillis & Avis, 1980;Pawlowski, 2003). Height of men is considered an attractive trait by women (Pierce, 1996). Although women's preferences for men's height are influenced by their own height, several studies have consistently found that women prefer men taller than themselves and with a height above men's average in their population (Courtiol et al., 2010;Fink, Neave, Brewer, & Pawlowski, 2007;. ...
... Although women's preferences for men's height are influenced by their own height, several studies have consistently found that women prefer men taller than themselves and with a height above men's average in their population (Courtiol et al., 2010;Fink, Neave, Brewer, & Pawlowski, 2007;. This is probably because height may signal both the capability of giving protection to the woman and the offspring and to extract limited resources from the social environment (Pierce, 1996). However, extremely tall men may be perceived as less attractive than tall men because their reduced reproductive success due to health problems (Nettle, 2002a). ...
... In fact, smaller men may be in general accurate in their assessment, probably because they have to confront the potential devastating costs that an incorrect assessment of physical power of rival could have for them. In addition, in terms of mate choice, smaller men are in disadvantageous situation, as they are generally less attractive than taller men (Courtiol et al., 2010;Pierce 1996;Stulp & Barret, 2016). ...
Intrasexual competition can be defined as the struggle between members of one sex to increase their access to members of the other sex as sexual partners. In our species, height is a sexually dimorphic trait probably involved in both intrasexual and intersexual selective processes. In the present research, we examined the relationship between height and individual differences in intrasexual competitiveness (i.e., the tendency to view same-sex interactions in general in competitive terms) in two populations of adolescents and adults of both sexes in Chile. According to our first prediction, among both adolescent and adult men, height was negatively associated with intrasexual competitiveness. In contrast, among women, height was not linearly nor quadratically related with intrasexual competitiveness as previously reported. Finally, adolescent men and women showed increased levels of intrasexual competitiveness compared to adult same-sex counterparts. Our results suggest that height is a relevant trait in mating competition among men. The lack of relationship between height and intrasexual competitiveness in women may suggest that the role of height in women mating competition may be more complex and mediated by other variables.
... Along with these characteristics, females also specifically show preference for height (Gahtan & Mark, 2013). In a 1984 study conducted by Koestner and Wheeler, as cited in Pierce (1996), data from a singles magazine suggested that males who advertised their tallness on dating profiles were more likely to receive responses than those who reported being short. This is because height, among the cues previously listed, are attributes associated with fitness and health, which is desirable to pass on to offspring (Gangestad et al., 2006). ...
... The hypothesis stating that females would show preference for taller males in a mating situation was supported by the data. This is consistent with the literature (Gahtan & Mark, 2013;Pierce 1996) and evolutionary theories that suggest females show preference for masculine features such as increased height. Traits demonstrating genetic fitness are particularly important, as they show the ability to protect and provide. ...
... Contributing to this, found that females show preference for genetic quality specifically during mating. Additionally, both Gahtan and Mark (2013) and Koestner and Wheeler (as cited in Pierce 1996) found that females were more likely to respond to personal ads with taller heights indicated on the profile than those with shorter heights. ...
... Height exerts an influence on mate choice for both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, and there is substantial evidence that taller males enjoy a noticeable dating advantage (Hensley 1994;Pierce 1996;Shepperd and Strathman 1989;Courtiol et al. 2010;Bodenhorn, Moehling, and Price 2012;Stulp et al. 2014;Valentova et al. 2014). Both women and men prefer individuals who are significantly taller than the average (Courtiol et al. 2010). ...
... But there was no statistically significant relationship between height and the number of self-reported dates. The strength of the effect of body height on dating/mating preference was greater for females evaluating males than for males evaluating females (Pierce 1996;Valentova et al. 2014) collected information from 541 nonheterosexual men of Czech origin and found that within homosexual relationships, men that preferred a more dominant and more active sexual role preferred shorter partners. At the same time, those that preferred a more submissive and more passive sexual role preferred taller partners. ...
The height premium has been studied worldwide for years using evidence from countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, the USA, Vietnam, etc. This paper links adult height and schooling to salary using evidence from China. We use the data from three waves of the Chinese General Social Survey conducted in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Results suggest both significant returns to height and to schooling. We also found evidence of endogeneity in the education and schooling variables. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) methods were used to correct for endogeneity bias. The 2SLS methods yielded even larger returns to schooling and to height. The first stage equations explaining height and years of schooling found that greater parental education was generally associated with both greater height and more schooling. Being in rural areas had negative effects on both schooling and height. Cohort effects were not significant in the income equation, while they were important in both schooling and height equations. People born farther back in time and in areas of lower economic development (as measured by regional per capita GDP in childhood) had shorter stature and less education. This suggests that current levels of economic development and parental education can positively influence the height and education of children. This in turn can increase the future earnings of children in China.
... Men's preferences for women's heights have consistently been shown to be weaker, less consistent, and less robust than women's preferences for men's heights (Pierce, 1996;Salska et al., 2008;Courtiol et al., 2010;Stulp et al., 2013a). This may reflect evolved and/or sociocultural sex differences in mate preferences (Walter et al., 2020), wherein, for example, body size in men can index dominance and resource holding potential-traits that are more likely to have been sexually selected among men than women. ...
... Few studies have examined men's preferences for women's heights, and those studies have typically produced smaller effect sizes and less consistent results than have studies examining women's preferences for men's heights (Pierce, 1996;Salska et al., 2008;Courtiol et al., 2010;Stulp et al., 2013a). In addition, no previous study, to the authors knowledge, has tested for differences in men's preferences for women's heights across relationship contexts, despite the important trade-off between female height and reproduction (Stearns, 2000;Stulp and Barrett, 2016). ...
Height preferences reflecting positive assortative mating for height—wherein an individual’s own height positively predicts the preferred height of their mate—have been observed in several distinct human populations and are thought to increase reproductive fitness. However, the extent to which assortative preferences for height differ strategically for short-term versus long-term relationship partners, as they do for numerous other indices of mate quality, remains unclear. We explore this possibility in a large representative sample of over 500 men and women aged 15–77 from Canada, Cuba, Norway and the United States. Participants’ own heights were measured, and they indicated their height preferences for a long-term and short-term mate using graphic stimuli containing metric indices. Replicating the “male-taller norm,” participants on average preferred taller-than-average male mates, and shorter-than-average female mates. Positive assortative preferences for height were observed across sexes and samples, however the strength of these height preferences varied with relationship context for men, and not for women. Taller men preferred relatively shorter women for short-term relationships than for long-term relationships, indicating stronger assortative preferences for height in a long-term context. These results provide preliminary evidence that, in addition to mate preferences for other physical traits related to mate quality such as masculinity in the body, face, and voice, assortative preferences for height do vary as a function of expected relationship length, but this was surprisingly only observed in preferences for female height.
... However, a sizeable stature may also serve as a physical cue for females to other evolutionary advantages such as dominance, social status, and the ability to attain resources (Buss, 1989(Buss, , 1994Fiske, 2004). Women from Western cultures consistently demonstrate this attraction to tall men as reported from surveys of ideal mate characteristics (Pierce, 1996;Courtiol et al., 2010;Yancey and Emerson, 2014). Furthermore, the male-taller norm is evident from investigations of actual height differences between couples (Gillis and Avis, 1980). ...
... The findings of the current study suggest that individuals are intuitively or perhaps consciously aware of this phenomenon, as the composition of profile photos were consistent with the height ideals of the opposite sex. Specifically, men with selfies oriented from below facilitate the perception of tallness, a feature robustly reported from women's mate preferences (Pierce, 1996;Courtiol et al., 2010;Yancey and Emerson, 2014). By contrast, women's prevalence of selfies taken from overhead conveys relative shortness to the viewer, a smaller yet significant height preference reported by men (Pawlowski, 2003;Fink et al., 2007). ...
When taking a self-portrait or “selfie” to display in an online dating profile, individuals may intuitively manipulate the vertical camera angle to embody how they want to be perceived by the opposite sex. Concepts from evolutionary psychology and grounded cognition suggest that this manipulation can provide cues of physical height and impressions of power to the viewer which are qualities found to influence mate-selection. We predicted that men would orient selfies more often from below to appear taller (i.e., more powerful) than the viewer, and women, from an above perspective to appear shorter (i.e., less powerful). A content analysis was conducted which coded the vertical orientation of 557 selfies from profile pictures on the popular mobile dating application, Tinder. In general, selfies were commonly used by both men (54%) and women (90%). Consistent with our predictions, a gender difference emerged; men's selfies were angled significantly more often from below, whereas women's were angled more often from above. Our findings suggest that selfies presented in a mate-attraction context are intuitively or perhaps consciously selected to adhere to ideal mate qualities. Further discussion proposes that biological or individual differences may also facilitate vertical compositions of selfies.
... Besides socio-economic influences (Komlos, 2009), stature is considered to be determined heavily by heredity factors; up to 80%-90% of its variance can be explained by genetics. The combination of biology and socioeconomic factors, alongside group psychology (Pierce, 1996;Kirchengast, 2000;Herpin, 2001;Fink et al., 2007), means that rulers are often taller than their contemporary subjects: For example, the height of the US Presidents (Persico et al., 2004) and medieval Emperor Charlemagne were taller than the average men of their age (R€ uhli et al., 2010). ...
... Thus it can be extrapolated that the missing queens of the 20th Dynasty may have been approximately 155-158 cm tall. The shorter stature of royal wives may be explained by sexual selection-i.e., short women are considered more attractive by males (Sheppard and Strathman, 1989;Pierce, 1996;Hawass, 2006;Fink et al., 2007;Swami et al., 2008;Yancey and Emerson, 2014). Royals probably, to a larger extent than commoners, had a choice of spouses. ...
Body height is an important factor in reconstructing health conditions and it serves as an indicator of socio-economic status. Researchers rely on ancient data to analyze evolutionary aspects of human health and its interrelation with environmental influences. This study presents body height estimates from all periods of ancient Egyptian history and compares the general population with the existing mummies of the members of royal families. A sample of 259 adult Egyptian mummies originating from various collections and published sources with body lengths (long bone measures or/and overall measurements, CT data) were analyzed, and royal mummies were scored with respect to the level of consanguinity. Male royals were taller than males in the general ancient Egyptian population, while female royals were shorter than females in the general population. The body height variation of the royals is significantly reduced when compared with a pool of non-royal mummies. This provides evidence for inbreeding resulting from consanguineous marriages. However, there appears to be no correlation between the level of inbreeding and individual body height. The random sample of general population does not show signs of inbreeding. Due to the present lack of larger, technically and ethically challenging genetic studies, the selected non-invasive approach of body height is the most reliable indicator of sibling marriages of pharaohs based on direct physical evidence. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... Height is also associated with male health: tall (but not the tallest) men seem to have optimized immunity function (Krams et al., 2014). In general, male tallness is preferred across human societies, but no such simple preference exists or female height (Pierce, 1996;Shepperd & Strathman, 1989;Stulp & Barrett, 2016). Greater body mass, on the other hand, might be costlier in regions with uncertain food availability. ...
Objectives
Previous research revealed that in some African populations, food‐production strategies are associated with facial shape. Nomadic pastoralists living in the African Sahel/Savannah belt have a different facial morphology than their sedentary neighbors. We investigated whether the lifestyle associated with a subsistence pattern has an impact on sexual dimorphism in the facial structure.
Methods
We employed several methods from geometric morphometrics and demonstrated such effect in four ethnically distinct populations that share the same geographic space.
Results
We show that the facial traits which correlate with a subsistence strategy are systematically associated with levels of facial sex‐typicality. In particular, we found that faces with more pronounced pastoralist features have on average more masculine facial traits and that this effect is more pronounced in men than in women.
Conclusions
In general, though, the magnitude of overall facial dimorphism does not differ between pastoralists and farmers. Pastoralists (in contrast to farmers) tend to have a more masculine facial morphology but facial differences between the sexes are in both groups the same.
... Women prefer to date men who are taller than average and who have a higher SHR; in turn, and a women's height is associated with the height they prefer in a partner (Courtiol, Raymond, Godelle, & Ferdy, 2010;Fink et al., 2007;Salska et al., 2008). Women also find taller men more attractive (Hensley, 1994;Pierce, 1996), and attractive women marry taller men (Pawlowski, Boothroyd, Perrett, & Kluska, 2008). Bodily strength is associated with the reported number of sexual partners among American students, and Gallup et al. (2007) hand grip strength (a measure of muscle function) is positively correlated with the number of sexual partners and negatively correlated with age of first intercourse in men. ...
Objectives
Mass shooters, violent extremists, and terrorists, who are overwhelmingly male, exhibit misogynistic attitudes and a history of violence against women. Over the past few years, incels (“involuntary celibates”) have gathered in online communities to discuss their frustration with sexual/romantic rejection, espouse male supremacist attitudes, and justify violence against women and men who are more popular with women. Despite the link between misogyny and mass violence, and the recent emergence of online misogynistic extremism, theories and empirical research on misogynistic extremism remain scarce. This article fills this gap.
Methods
An integration of literatures pertaining to the basics of sexual selection, evolved male psychology, and aggression suggests there are three major areas that should be considered imperative in understanding the emergence of misogynistic extremism.
Results
Individual factors (e.g., low status) and social forces, such as a high degree of status inequality, female empowerment, and the ease of coordination through social media, give rise to misogynistic extremism.
Conclusions
The unique interaction between evolved male psychology, the dynamics of the sexual marketplace, and modern technologies can create an ecology in which incel beliefs can thrive and make violence attractive.
... Height is also associated with male health: tall (but not the tallest) men seem to have optimised immunity function 70 . In general, male tallness is preferred across human societies, but no such simple preference exists or female height [71][72][73] . Greater body mass, on the other hand, might be costlier in regions with uncertain food availability. ...
Previous research revealed that in some African populations, food-production strategies are associated with facial shape. Nomadic pastoralists living in the African Sahel/Savannah belt have a different facial morphology than their sedentary neighbours. We investigated whether the lifestyle associated with a subsistence pattern has an impact on sexual dimorphism in the facial structure. We employed several methods from geometric morphometrics and demonstrated such effect in four ethnically distinct populations that share the same geographic space. We show that the facial traits which correlate with a subsistence strategy are systematically associated with levels of facial sex-typicality. In particular, we found that faces with more pronounced pastoralist features have on average more masculine facial traits and that this effect is more pronounced in men than in women. In general, though, the magnitude of overall facial dimorphism does not differ between pastoralists and farmers. Pastoralists (in contrast to farmers) tend to have a more masculine facial morphology but facial differences between the sexes are in both groups the same.
... Women prefer to date men who are taller than average and who have a higher SHR; in turn, and a women's height is associated with the height they prefer in a partner (Courtiol, Raymond, Godelle, & Ferdy, 2010;Fink et al., 2007;Salska et al., 2008). Women also find taller men more attractive (Hensley, 1994;Pierce, 1996), and attractive women marry taller men (Pawlowski, Boothroyd, Perrett, & Kluska, 2008). Bodily strength is associated with the reported number of sexual partners among American students, and Gallup et al. (2007) hand grip strength (a measure of muscle function) is positively correlated with the number of sexual partners and negatively correlated with age of first intercourse in men. ...
Mass shooters, violent extremists, and terrorists, who are overwhelmingly male, exhibit misogynistic attitudes and a history of violence against women. Over the past few years, incels (“involuntary celibates”) have gathered in online communities to discuss their frustration with sexual/romantic rejection, espouse male supremacist attitudes, and justify violence against women and men who are more popular with women. Despite the link between misogyny and mass violence, and the recent emergence of online misogynistic extremism, theories and empirical research on misogynistic extremism remain scarce. I posit that the unique interaction between evolved male psychology, the dynamics of the sexual marketplace, and modern technologies create an ecology in which incel beliefs can thrive and make violence attractive. I show how individual factors, particularly low status, and social forces, such as a high degree of status inequality, female empowerment, and the ease of coordination through social media, give rise to misogynistic extremism.
... One explanation for our finding is that women have been strongly socialized to prefer taller men. Indeed, women's preferences for men's height are well documented (Pierce, 1996).Therefore, attraction to height may be deliberate and remain consistent throughout women's ovulatory cycles. ...
We tested the good genes ovulatory shift hypothesis through speed-dating, an ecologically valid paradigm with real life consequences. Fifteen speed-dating sessions of 262 single Asian Americans were held. We analyzed 850 speed-dates involving 132 men and 100 normally ovulating women, finding ovulatory shifts in the desirability of men with more masculine facial measurements (smaller eye–mouth–eye angle, larger lower face to full face height ratio, and smaller facial width to lower face height ratio) in the predicted direction. However, there was no support for ovulatory shifts in preferences for men’s self-reported height. In addition, the expected shifts were not found for women’s second date offers to men. Therefore, with natural stimuli and in a competitive dating scenario, we partially replicated previously documented ovulatory shifts in women’s preferences for men.
... Results were clearer for males than females. Pierce (1996) conducted two meta-analyses to investigate female and male height preferences for romantic partners. Although the height effect was not consistent throughout the studies included in the analysis, in general, there was some evidence supporting the female preference for taller males. ...
Human height is usually determined by objective measures. Taking into account that body height can have perceptual dimensions, it seems interesting to investigate this personal attribute by a more subjective approach. However, for this it would be former necessary to establish the capability to discriminate difference between figures depicturing body heights. Thus, the objective of this study was to establish the smallest perceptible difference whilst judging the similarity between different human figures representing body heights. Methods: 140 pairs of human figures were presented to 37 participants. The differences between human figures varied from 0 (equal) to 6 cm proportionally to the real height. Each participant judged whether the figures were similar or different. Results: The percentage of correct answers increased when the difference between figures increased. This percentage was higher than 70% for differences corresponding to 4 cm or higher of the real height for both genders. Conclusion: Relative difference (sensory threshold) of 4 cm was consistently established for visual discrimination of height in pictorial human body. This sensory threshold can be considered when studies on perceptual body height are conducted in the future.
... A person's height appears to be one of the key attributes in determining interpersonal attractiveness [1][2][3]. There are significant differences in height between genders [4] that affect mate selection preferences. ...
Body height is considered to be one of the most important reproductive signals. However, there are only a few publications on what influences the sense of whether we assess ourselves as tall or short. In the present contribution, the psychological impact of money on the evaluation of a person’s own height was tested. We performed two experimental studies in which the respondents had contact with different amounts of money and were asked to evaluate their body height with the use of a laser pointer. The first experiment (N = 61) showed that contact with money significantly increased subjective height evaluation, and the effect was independent of participants’ real body height. The second experiment (N = 120) replicated the effect of money manipulation. Moreover, it was shown that higher amounts of money increased one’s own height estimation more than smaller amounts. Our research shows that money can be used for building one’s social position, which is an attractiveness signal that can influence one’s own height evaluation.
... Likewise, women of the Tanzanian Hadza tribe showed no preference for large body size in potential mates 52 and they were more likely to marry men shorter than themselves compared to British women 53 . Despite some exceptions, male tallness is preferred across human societies while there is no such simple preference for female height [54][55][56][57] . In this study, we generated a large dataset (N = 1317) of facial portraits to explore how facial dimorphism varies across eight human populations (Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Czech Republic, Namibia, Romania, Turkey, and United Kingdom). ...
Sexual selection, including mate choice and intrasexual competition, is responsible for the evolution of some of the most elaborated and sexually dimorphic traits in animals. Although there is sexual dimorphism in the shape of human faces, it is not clear whether this is similarly due to mate choice, or whether mate choice affects only part of the facial shape difference between men and women. Here we explore these questions by investigating patterns of both facial shape and facial preference across a diverse set of human populations. We find evidence that human populations vary substantially and unexpectedly in both the magnitude and direction of facial sexually dimorphic traits. In particular, European and South American populations display larger levels of facial sexual dimorphism than African populations. Neither cross-cultural differences in facial shape variation, sex differences in body height, nor differing preferences for facial femininity and masculinity across countries, explain the observed patterns of facial dimorphism. Altogether, the association between sexual shape dimorphism and attractiveness is moderate for women and weak (or absent) for men. Analysis that distinguishes between allometric and non-allometric components reveals that non-allometric facial dimorphism is preferred in women’s faces but not in faces of men. This might be due to different regimes of ongoing sexual selection acting on men, such as stronger intersexual selection for body height and more intense intrasexual physical competition, compared with women.
... If these psychological characteristics are indeed present, maximizers may desire and seek a marriage partner who possesses socially desired traits. Furthermore, based on previous findings that have indicated considerable gender differences in the preferred characteristics of romantic and marital partners (Furnham, 2009;Pierce, 1996;Sprecher, Sullivan, & Hatfield, 1994), it is possible that male and female maximizers value different traits in their partners. Therefore, male maximizers may be more likely to choose a physically attractive person, whereas female maximizers may tend to seek a socioeconomically affluent partner. ...
The present study examined whether maximizing tendency predicts Japanese adults' likelihood of getting married and their age at first marriage. Registered members of a survey company panel (n = 428) completed the Japanese version of the Relational Maximization Scale, which was used to assess maximizing tendency consisting of two factors. The first factor, “high standards,” was not related to either of the two variables under investigation. The second factor, “alternative search,” was positively related to age at first marriage but not to the likelihood of getting married. The results thus suggest that those who seek the best possible marriage partner tend to get married at a later age, but that they are as likely to get married as those who do not. The finding that maximizing tendency did not significantly predict the likelihood of marriage suggests that getting married remains a strong social norm in Japan.
... As suggested by Sedgewick and collaborators, male choices of camera angle on Tinder may reflect the role of partner height in mate selection. It has been often reported that Western women rate taller men as more attractive [43][44][45], whereas there is no corresponding preference of men for shorter women [46,47]. Given that Tinder arguably emphasizes self-presentation for the purpose of dating, it is plausible that the male bias for camera angles from below stems at least in part from an attempt to appear taller and suggest greater power and physical dominance when posting on this platform in comparison to Instagram, which arguably spans a wider range of purposes for self-presentation. ...
Background
Selfies are a novel social phenomenon that is gradually beginning to receive attention within the cognitive sciences. Several studies have documented biases that may be related to nonverbal communicative intentions. For instance, in selfies posted on the dating platform Tinder males but not females prefer camera views from below (Sedgewick, Flath & Elias, 2017). We re-examined this study to assess whether this bias is confined to dating selection contexts and to compare variability between individuals and between genders.
Methods
Three raters evaluated vertical camera position in 2000 selfies– 1000 by males and 1000 by females—posted in Instagram.
Results
We found that the choices of camera angle do seem to vary depending on the context under which the selfies were uploaded. On Tinder, females appear more likely to choose neutral, frontal presentations than they do on Instagram, whereas males on Tinder appear more likely to opt for camera angles from below than on Instagram.
Conclusions
This result confirms that the composition of selfies is constrained by factors affecting nonverbal communicative intentions.
... Men's height preferences are less clear than women's, with several studies suggesting that western men prefer average or shorter-than-average women and others reporting the opposite or no preference at all [4 for review]. Indeed, women's height preferences are consistently found to be stronger, less variable and more robust than men's [4,14,17,19]. ...
We tested whether positive assortative preferences for height are observed in a large cross-cultural sample of men and women (536 adults aged 15-77 from Canada, Cuba, Norway and the United States), and whether assortative preferences for height differ for hypothetical long- versus short-term relationship partners. Participants indicated their height preferences for a long- and short-term mate using graphic stimuli. Replicating previous research, participants generally preferred taller-than-average men and women of approximately average height across cultures. However, positive assortative preferences for height were only weakly observed in either sex, and the strength of these relationships did not vary by relationship context. Assortative preferences for height also did not vary by the participants’ country of residence, nationality, or categorized ethnicity. Our results provide further evidence that the positive relationship between an individual’s own height and the preferred height of a potential partner is not strongly influenced by cultural factors and provide the first evidence that, in contrast to mate preferences for masculine androgen-mediated traits, height preferences do not vary as a function of relationship context.
... Given the nature of the social media application where the selfies were posted, Sedgewick et al. interpreted their effect as due to differences in sexual preferences in relation to partner height. It is well-established that Western women consistently report higher attraction to taller men (Pierce, 1996;Courtiol et al., 2010;Stulp et al., 2013;Yancey and Emerson, 2014), whereas men's preferences for shorter women are generally weaker (Pawlowski, 2003;Fink et al., 2007). Our findings suggest that this bias may extend to selfies in general. ...
Using conceptual tools from semiotics, proxemics, and sensorimotor neuroscience, we propose a duplex model for understanding selfies as non-verbal communication involving an interplay between two layers of interaction: human—media (semiotically primary) and human—human (secondary). We suggest that this approach has promise as a tool for understanding this newborn form of human social behavior and its social, psychological, and neural underpinnings. To support our claim, we do several things. We offer a definition of selfies and outline our model. We review the existing literature on selfies as non-verbal communication to show that there is evidence bearing on our theoretical framework. We present a case study documenting how a combination of image analysis and kinematic measurement can be used to compare taker—smartphone interactions during selfie-taking with image features that play a role in the virtual interaction between the selfie-taker and his or her viewers. Our results support the feasibility of our approach and reveal a sex-related effect on the composition of selfies matching a related difference in the kinematic markers that describe the taker—smartphone interaction. Finally, we discuss outstanding questions in understanding selfies as duplex non-verbal communication and conclude by inviting further research on this topic.
... W po czeniu z wyj tkowymi dokonaniami w adcy, mog one prze o y si na wyobra enie o szczególnie korzystnych warunkach Þ zycznych, które zreszt królom by y cz sto przez kronikarzy przypisywane. Przyk adowo znane s zapiski o wyj tkowej sile Þ zycznej Zygmunta I Starego z dynastii Jagiellonów, który ama elazne podkowy, napina kusz bez u ycia lewara i potraÞ przedrze tali kart 37 . Tak e prezentowana w tym artykule zale no pomi dzy sprawowaniem w adzy a wzrostem jest zgodna z przekazami historycznymi. ...
W prezentowanych badaniach sprawdzono, czy na ocenę wzrostu władcy może wpływać informacja o jego „historycznej wielkości”. W eksperymencie I manipulowano sukcesami, które osiągnął Baure (panujący w Egipcie około 2500 lat p.n.e.), i uzyskano 10 cm różnicy w ocenie wzrostu „sprawnego” i „nieudolnego” władcy. W eksperymencie II porównano szacowany wzrost najbardziej cenionych i najgorszych polskich królów: „wielkich” badani uważali za istotnie wyższych od przedstawianych jako nieudolni. Wyniki te sugerują, że osoby sprawujące władzę są spostrzegane jako wyższe, ale tylko gdy rządzą dobrze.
... For example, an unknown man, who was introduced to the audience as a student, was rated as much shorter than the same man, but presented as a psychology professor (Wilson et al. 1968). What is more, people are likely to associate superior stature in men with many other favorable characteristics, such as greater physical attractiveness, health, competence and higher morale (Pierce 1996;Lester and Sheehan 1980;Agerstrӧm 2014). Kurtz (1969) found that people believe that taller height results in greater efficiency at work. ...
The stereotype of a tall man has been reported in numerous studies. High stature is commonly associated with advantages such as leadership skills, wealth, intelligence or social status, and actual differences between the short and the tall men were indeed found for these traits, mainly in favor of the tall men. It is not certain, however, whether the height-related effects are biologically determined or if they result from socially-driven mechanisms. In this study we wanted to explore whether congenitally blind individuals, who are unable to perceive other people’s stature through the most salient, visual channel, share the positive, height-related stereotype. Thirty-four congenitally blind and forty-three sighted men and women rated four positive characteristics of a tall or a short man. It was found that none of the traits assigned to the tall man by the sighted people was assigned to this person by the blind individuals. In the congenitally blind group, no differences between the assessments of the tall and the short man were revealed. We discuss our findings in the context of social perception and stereotypes research.
... Other research has taken an evolutionary psychology perspective (see Chapter 3 of this volume), suggesting that women feel particularly attracted to men who seem to possess high power status, indicated by good financial prospects, ambition, industriousness, social status, and a somewhat older age (Buss, 1989;Buss, 2006;Buss & Schmitt, 1993;Elliot et al., 2010;Wiederman & Allgeier, 1992). Moreover, women typically desire taller men as men's height serves as another cue for perceived power status (Bryan, Webster, & Mahaffey, 2011;Korda, 1975;Wilson, 1968), while men do not prefer taller women (Lynn & Shurgot, 1984;Pierce, 1996). However, more recent research examining women's preference for high power status in men only found this preference in ideal partners but not in actual potential partners (Eastwick & Finkel, 2008). ...
Power in Close Relationships - edited by Christopher R. Agnew February 2019
... Existing research suggests that women tend to choose partners who are tall (Hensley, 1994) and, in particular, taller than themselves (see meta-analysis, Pierce, 1996). This may be due to a link between body height and health (Christensen et al., 2007), and/or height and career success (Judge and Cable, 2004). ...
In mate choice, individuals consider a wide pool of potential partners. It has been found that people have certain preferences, but intraindividual stability of mate choice over time remains little explored. We tested individual consistency of mate choice with respect to a number of demographic, physical, and personality characteristics. Only mothers were recruited for this study, because we wanted to find out not only whether women choose long-term partners with certain characteristics but also whether the father of their child(ren) differs from their other long-term (ex-)partners. Women (N = 537) of 19–45 years of age indicated the demographic, physical (by using image stimuli), and personality characteristics of all of their long-term partners (partners per respondent: mean = 2.98, SD = 1.32). Then we compared the average difference between an individual’s long-term partners with the expected average difference using a permutation test. We also evaluated differences between partners who had children with the participants (fathers) and other long-term partners (non-fathers) using permutation tests and mixed-effect models. Our results revealed that women choose long-term partners consistently with respect to all types of characteristics. Although effect sizes for the individual characteristics were rather weak, maximal cumulative effect size for all characteristics together was high, which suggests that relatively low effect sizes were caused by high variability with low correlations between characteristics, and not by inconsistent mate choice. Furthermore, we found that despite some differences between partners, fathers of participants’ child(ren) do fit their ‘type’. These results suggest that mate choice may be guided by relatively stable but to some degree flexible preferences, which makes mate choice cognitively less demanding and less time-consuming. Further longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this conclusion.
... Tall men are consistently seen as more desirable as dates and mates than are short or average men (Courtiol et al. 2010). Two studies of personal ads revealed that, among women who mentioned height, 80% wanted a man to be 6 feet tall or taller (Pierce 1996). Personals ads placed by taller men received more responses from women than those placed by shorter men. ...
Evolved mate preferences comprise a central causal process in Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Their powerful influences have been documented in all sexually reproducing species, including in sexual strategies in humans. This article reviews the science of human mate preferences and their myriad behavioral manifestations. We discuss sex differences and sex similarities in human sexual psychology, which vary according to short-term and long-term mating contexts. We review context-specific shifts in mating strategy depending on individual, social, and ecological qualities such as mate value, life history strategy, sex ratio, gender economic inequality, and cultural norms. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of mate preferences on actual mating decisions. Mate preferences also dramatically influence tactics of mate attraction, tactics of mate retention, patterns of deception, causes of sexual regret, attraction to cues to sexual exploitability, attraction to cues to fertility, attraction to cues to resources and protection, derogation of competitors, causes of breakups, and patterns of remarriage. We conclude by articulating unresolved issues and offer a future agenda for the science of human mating, including how humans invent novel cultural technologies to better implement ancient sexual strategies and how cultural evolution may be dramatically influencing our evolved mating psychology. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 70 is January 4, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... On priorities on romantic attraction, men emphasized on physical attractiveness while women on sense of humor with physically attractiveness (Lundy, Tan, & Cunningham, 1998). Pierce (1996) studied body height and romantic attraction and found that females showed greater effect of body height when it came to dating or mating preferences. The study also supported the male-taller norm in romantic attraction. ...
The present study was conducted with the aim of understanding the psychosocial determinants of romantic inclination among youth in India. We involved 779 student participants from a large central university in south India in the age range of 18-24 years. The participants filled measures on romantic inclination, personality, attachment style, interpersonal attraction, and social influence on romantic relationship in addition to a questionnaire on demographic information and relationship history. Analysis of the data revealed that males showed higher level of romantic inclination than females. Those who had current/past involvement in a romantic relationship (Lovers) showed higher levels of romantic inclination than those who had never involved in a romantic relationship (Non-lovers). Parents’ type of marriage (Love/arranged), close fiends’ involvement in romantic relationship too had a discriminatory role in romantic inclination. Romantic inclination was significantly related to personality factors, attachment style, media and peer influences on romantic relationships and interpersonal attraction. Extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, media influence, peer influence, secure attachment and physical attraction emerged as significant predictors of romantic inclination in a regression model. Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) indicated that personality, attachment style and interpersonal attraction had a significant influence on romantic inclination mediated by both media and peer influences. Romantic inclination in turn significantly predicted romantic relationship status.
... No study assessed the role of the respective heights of men and women. This could be relevant since there is a preference in heterosexual partnerships for the male to be taller than the female [45,46], and very high heels may eliminate this difference since young women in Australia, the United States and England [47][48][49] are on average less than 15 cm shorter than young men. Indeed, research into this area has a clear heteronormative bias and does not consider alternative sexualities. ...
Background
High-heeled shoes (high heels) are frequently worn by many women and form an important part of female gender identity. Issues of explicit and implicit compulsion to wear high heels have been noted. Previous studies and reviews have provided evidence that high heels are detrimental to health. However, the evidence base remains fragmented and no review has covered both the epidemiological and biomechanical literature. In addition, no review has considered the psychosexual benefits that offer essential context in understanding the public health challenge of high heels.
Methods
We searched seven major bibliographic databases up to November 2016, in addition to supplementary searches. We initially identified all review articles of any design that assessed either the psychosexual benefits or negative musculoskeletal health effects of high heels, the latter looking at both the epidemiological and biomechanical perspectives. We additionally considered additional primary studies on areas that had not been reviewed before or in which a marked lack of evidence had been noted. Data were extracted onto standardised forms. Proportionate second review was conducted.
Results
A total of 506 unique records were identified, 27 full-text publications were screened and 20 publications (7 reviews and 13 additional studies) were included in our evidence synthesis. The most up-to-date epidemiological review provides clear evidence of an association between high heel wear and hallux valgus, musculoskeletal pain and first-party injury. The body of biomechanical reviews provides clear evidence of changes indicative of increased risk of these outcomes, as well as osteoarthritis, which is not yet evidenced by epidemiological studies. There were no reviews on psychosexual benefits, but all five identified original studies provided evidence of increased attractiveness and/or an impact on men’s behaviour associated with high heel wear. With regard to second-party injury, evidence is limited to one descriptive study and eight case reports.
Conclusions
Our evidence synthesis clearly shows that high heels bring psychosexual benefits to women but are detrimental to their health. In light of this dilemma, it is important that women’s freedom of choice is respected and that any remaining issues of explicit or implicit compulsion are addressed.
... When undergraduates were asked to rank the importance of height in partner selection for themselves and for the opposite sex, the man's height was found to be a more important consideration for women than the reverse (18). Finally, in a metaanalysis examining the male-taller preference in heterosexual dating, Pierce (28) determined that women desired men taller than themselves to a greater extent than men desired women shorter than themselves. ...
... Studies on desired partners have shown that an ideal partner for a male is shorter than himself, whereas for a female, an ideal partner is taller than herself (Buss & Barnes, 1986;Fink, Neave, Brewer, & Pawlowski, 2007;Higgins, Zheng, Liu, & Sun, 2002;Pierce, 1996;Salska et al., 2008;Yancey & Emerson, 2016). This rule has been called the ''male-taller'' norm (Gillis & Avis, 1980), and women are more likely to comply with the male-taller norm than men . ...
This study proposed ordered probit models as a methodology to verify the male-taller norm and the male-not-too-tall norm while controlling for other factors. This study confirmed the prevalence of the male-taller and the male-not-too-tall norms in Taiwan. The frequency of the height difference between a husband and wife within the range of 5–15 cm was higher than what would be expected by chance. This range in Taiwan was smaller than the range in the United Kingdom, which may imply that there are preferred height differences between couples that vary across populations.
... (Pearson 1895; Pearson and Lee 1903), researchers have documented evidence for assortative mating: taller individuals prefer a taller partner and shorter individuals prefer shorter ones (e.g., Courtiol et al. 2010; Fink et al. 2007; Pawlowski 2003; Spuhler 1982; Stulp et al. 2013bc ). Next, a male-taller norm has been argued to exist in Western societies: women prefer men taller than themselves, and men prefer women shorter than themselves (Beigel 1954; Courtiol et al. 2010; Gillis and Avis 1980; Pierce 1996; Stulp et al. 2013b-c; Swami et al. 2008), although women seem to prefer a larger size difference than men do (Stulp et al. 2013b ). However, the preferred size difference also has a limit, 'the male-nottoo-tall norm' (Stulp et al. 2013c), and in addition appears to be conditional on the woman's height ('Pawlowski rule'; Fink et al. 2007; Pawlowski 2003; Salska et al. 2008). ...
In humans, studies have shown that contrast illusions can affect perceptions of facial attractiveness and dominance. In non-human animals, recent research found that contrast illusions of size positively affected male mate value. In humans, male height is a potentially important indicator of mate value, with women preferring men taller than themselves. We tested in two studies whether height contrast illusions could affect women's perceptions of male height and mate value, particularly attractiveness, dominance, and muscularity. Using computer-generated images of men of different heights standing in groups of three, 104 female participants rated targets either surrounded by shorter, same height, or taller distractors in a within-subject design. The second experiment (N=80) replicated and extended the first by making the images more realistic and adding natural backgrounds, suggesting that when participants are given a visual anchor, in order to get a better sense of the absolute height of the targets, the effects remain. In both studies, results showed that, compared with same height distractors, male targets were rated as taller when surrounded by shorter distractors, and as shorter when surrounded by taller distractors. Additionally, attractiveness, dominance, and muscularity perceptions were affected in a similar manner, with most of the differences in these appraisals being mediated by the perceived height differences. Therefore, differently sized distractors affected the perceived height and mate value of the targets, which were in effect all of the same constant size. These findings indicate that context dependent effects could potentially influence attractiveness judgments. The same man might thus be perceived as more attractive when surrounded by men of similar or smaller height, as opposed to when surrounded by men who are taller.
... Two points are worth recalling at this point. First, women prefer not just tall men but men taller than themselves, which is known as the male-taller norm (Pierce, 1996). Pawlowski (2003) used six pairs of human outlines with different levels of sexual dimorphism in stature (SDS) and demonstrated that Polish people adjusted their preferences for SDS in relation to their own height. ...
Although it has been known that women prefer tall men in mating for evolutionary reasons, no study has investigated whether a taller husband makes his wife happier. We analyzed two datasets (N. =. 7850) that are, together, representative of the Indonesian population to determine whether this is true. A greater height difference in a couple was positively related to the wife's happiness. This relationship gradually weakened over time and entirely dissipated by 18. years of marital duration. The husband's resourcefulness was a minor mediator in the relationship. We thus argue that the husband's height and its correlates made his wife initially happy, but their influence waned over time. Nevertheless, the long period of the dissipation indicates a powerful impact of male height on women's psychology, probably prepared by evolution.
Online social networks are increasingly consequential in individuals’ professional and personal lives, as many people engage online to create and maintain meaningful relationships and satisfy their needs for social connection. People tend to curate their online representations (profile pictures for different websites, videogame avatars, bitmojis, profile page bios, etc.) with almost as much regularity as their corporeal (real-world) self-presentation. As such, the current study explored the socially utilitarian choices people make when presenting themselves in both the corporeal and virtual public spheres. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing various aspects of their self-presentation and behavior in real-life, social media, and online videogames. We found several differences in self-presentation strategies in both online and offline contexts based primarily on ethnoracial background, sex, and skin tone. Minority women (particularly Multiracial women) reported dyeing their hair significantly more than White women, and the overwhelming majority reported dyeing their hair a lighter color than their natural hair color. Women use more emojis and exclamation points in emails and digital interactions than men, and they are more likely to use skin lightening filters before posting a selfie on social media. In addition, we found a descriptive pattern indicating that straight women and bisexual women dating men use more filters than lesbians and bisexual women dating women. Finally, in online videogames, men who are below average height reported creating videogame avatars that were taller than they were, individuals with darker skin tones reported creating avatars with skin tones lighter than their own, and introverts reported that they pretend to be extroverted in videogames more than extroverts reported pretending to be introverted. This study highlights the importance of online self-presentation on people’s social lives and the strategies that people utilize to align how they believe they are socially perceived with a more idealized version of themselves, or a version of themselves that will confer greater social capital than what they believe they naturally embody. Given the increasing possibilities of identity customization in the virtual public sphere, further research is needed to fully understand the complex relationship between online and offline self-presentation.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Wide-ranging and inclusive, this text provides an invaluable review of an expansive selection of topics in human evolution, variation and adaptability for professionals and students in biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, medical sciences and psychology. The chapters are organized around four broad themes, with sections devoted to phenotypic and genetic variation within and between human populations, reproductive physiology and behavior, growth and development, and human health from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. An introductory section provides readers with the historical, theoretical and methodological foundations needed to understand the more complex ideas presented later. Two hundred discussion questions provide starting points for class debate and assignments to test student understanding.
Over the past two centuries, the Dutch experienced a tremendous secular trend in height, and ultimately became the tallest nation in the world. Improving environmental conditions likely played the largest role in explaining these developments. But it is not yet clear what factor set the Dutch head and shoulders above other nations, who were also experiencing improving environmental conditions. Could fertility also have played a role? To understand this, we would first need to know whether height and fertility were related. In this study, we investigated whether this was the case.
A sample of Dutch men, birth years 1850-1900 (n=3,396), was examined. We tested the extents to which height was associated with having a certain number of children, and with having a certain number of children survive infancy. Multinomial logistic regressions were used.
In terms of findings, height’s relationship to fertility outcomes was curvilinear: being shorter-than-average (0.75 to 0.5 standard deviations below the mean height) was associated with a higher probability of being married and having five to seven children, while being 0.5 standard deviations above the mean was associated with the lowest probability of being unmarried. There was no relationship between paternal height and children surviving infancy in the sample overall, but taller height was associated with a decreased risk of being in a high-mortality family among men born between 1880 and 1900.
If fertility played a role in the secular growth trend, we would expect to see very tall men have the most children, and perhaps have the most children surviving infancy. Given this study’s findings, it is unlikely that this was the case.
Individuals whose threats of force are more effective, such as those with greater bodily formidability, have advantages when the social environment condones violence. This benefit shapes incentives regarding norms and preferences allowing aggressive behavior. More physically imposing people may, in particular, be likelier to approve of police use of violent tactics, one recent social flashpoint concerning attitudes to physical aggression. Archival data concerning more than 1600 respondents to the 2014 and 2018 iterations of the United States' General Social Survey confirm this hypothesis, with taller respondents (as the proxy for formidability) likelier to approve of police officers hitting male citizens in several circumstances, as well as corporal criminal-justice punishment in the form of the death penalty. Black respondents show less relationship between physical size and condoning of violent policing.
Research on couple bargaining and housework allocation focuses almost exclusively on partners’ economic resources. In this study, we ask whether additional bargaining resources, namely physical appearance and social networks, may exert a distinct effect – that is, whether partners can mobilize multiple resources within their bargaining framework. A focus on multiple bargaining chips is made possible by the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. In line with previous research, we conclude that earnings potential is the most important bargaining chip. But we also find that physical attractiveness can make a significant difference, although its effects depend on age. We uncover no distinct effects for social networks.
The purpose of this study is to examine the Sex Dimorphism Ratio (SDR) for a wide range of age groups in two environments, the suburbs of Los Angeles and Taiwan, which differ in height distribution. Using statistics, we examine if SDR will alter due to the change in woman's reproductive viability. Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in the form of multiple regression analysis with dummy variables and traditional regression analysis are applied. The results show that SDR approximately follows the required normal distribution, there is no interaction between age and environment, and there is no difference in SDRs among the 36 age groups. The only factor that affects the mean of the SDR is the environmental difference. The results imply that SDR remains constant throughout our lifespan despite changes in our personal reproductive viability. The ideal SDR is not fixed because different height probability distributions in different environments may have different optimal SDRs. The minimum SDR stays fairly constant, though statistically different from two different environments in our study. The maximum SDR from one environment in this study is much higher than that from the other.
Significance
Young Black men are stereotyped as threatening, which can have grave consequences for interactions with police. We show that these threat stereotypes are even greater for tall Black men, who face greater discrimination from police officers and elicit stronger judgments of threat. We challenge the assumption that height is intrinsically good for men. White men may benefit from height, but Black men may not. More broadly, we demonstrate how demographic factors (e.g., race) can influence how people interpret physical traits (e.g., height). This difference in interpretation is a matter not of magnitude but of meaning: The same trait is positive for some groups of people but negative for others.
Physical cues influence social judgments of others. For example, shorter individuals are evaluated less positively than taller individuals. Here, we demonstrate that height also impacts one of the most consequential intergroup judgments—attributions of humanity—and explore whether this effect is modulated by the tendency to value hierarchy maintenance. In Study 1, the shorter participants perceived a range of out-groups to be, the more they dehumanized them, and this tended to be particularly pronounced among those scoring high on social dominance orientation (SDO). In Study 2, participants dehumanized an out-group more when they were led to believe that it was relatively short. Finally, Study 3 applied a reverse correlation approach, demonstrating that participants in general, and especially those scoring high on SDO, represented shorter groups in ways less consistent with full humanity than they represented taller groups. Together, this research demonstrates that basic physical height cues shape the perceived humanity of out-groups.
The aim of the study was to analyze the rate and direction of changes with age in selected biological traits as well as evaluate their association with lifespan in the Polish population, separately for both sexes. Two types of materials were used in the research: 1) longitudinal sample which comprised 142 persons, including 68 men and 74 women, all were examined for 25 years, starting from age 45; 2) cross-sectional sample which was made up of 223 persons, including 111 men and 112 women. During adulthood and in old age, the research subjects lived for many years in the identical and good environmental conditions, which undoubtedly boosts the value of the study samples. Data on: body height and weight, BMI, complete blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration, hematocrit value, color index, blood glucose level, bilirubin level, thymol turbidity test value, urine specific gravity and pH, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, ESR, and body temperature, were analyzed statistically. Taller and slimmer individuals tended to live longer. Similarly, subjects with lower systolic blood pressure (SBP) and lower body temperature had higher age at death. We found that lower blood glucose level and higher bilirubin values were genuine and strong predictors of longevity for men only, whereas higher hemoglobin concentration, higher values of color index, increased absolute granulocyte count (AGC), slighlty elevated lymphocyte count, lower monocyte count as well as total leucocyte count (TLC), lower ESR, and lower thymol turbidity test values were all associated with extended lifespan in women only. Body weight, BMI, bilirubin level, and ESR significantly increased with age in both sexes. Monocyte count rose only in men, whilst red blood cell count, systolic blood pressure, and body temperature increased solely in women. Body height and color index decreased with age in men and women, whilst urine specific gravity diminished with age in women only. We also demonstrated significant U-shaped changes with age in white blood cell count and AGC in both sexes. The same pattern of changes with age was observed for blood glucose level in men as well as band cell count and monocyte count in women. The inverted U-shaped pattern of changes with aging was found for hematocrit value in both sexes, whereas this model proved fitting for diastolic blood pressure in men only.
This chapter explores individualized desires and anxieties in personal relationships, which play an important role in understanding the identity of young Chinese professionals as regards love and intimacy in the post-reform era. By introducing Bauman’s (Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds, Polity Press, Cambridge; 2003) concept of self-centred (or individualized) relationships, this chapter examines the changing emotions and attitudes of Chinese young people towards a lifelong relationship as well as the causes of the transition in dating and relationships. The easily entered and exited relationship not only reflects a more tolerant attitude towards changing emotional attachment in dating and relationships, but may also suggest that Chinese youth have a collective identity that is incomplete and subject to change.
This chapter reviews cross-species and cross-cultural evidence regarding the mating strategies and specialized mating psychologies that may be fundamental to humans. Comparative features of social living, sexual dimorphism, and reproductive physiology across primate species reveal insights into the natural mating psychology. The extant evidence suggests humans evolved a pluralistic mating repertoire that differs in adaptive ways across sex and temporal context, personal characteristics such as mate value and ovulatory status, and facultative features of culture and local ecology. The chapter addresses the evolutionary psychology of how men and women pursue short-term and long-term mating strategies. Another important question is why an individual man or woman would opt to pursue a long-term strategy versus a short-term strategy. In the future, evolutionary perspectives on human mating strategies should become more fully integrated with other perspectives, including religious, historical, and feminist scholarship.
This chapter outlines an evolutionary social psychological view of attractiveness in humans. Attractiveness is a fundamental part of the human social world, and to understand why certain traits are attractive we must consider a biological view. In an evolutionary view, our preferences serve a function: To drive us to mate with partners who will impart some benefit to us. In the chapter, I review work highlighting the impact of attractiveness, review several traits of individuals that have been found to impact attractiveness, and discuss some sources of variability in preferences consistent with an evolutionary perspective. Overall, the chapter addresses how evolutionary theory can be married to the complexity and variation of human preferences to present a fuller understanding of what we find attractive, why we find it attractive, and why, despite broad agreement, we see a wide variety of personal preference differences.
From an evolutionary perspective, animal mate choice depends in large part on the natural mating system of a species. The natural mating system of humans, however, seems at first glance to contain internal contradictions. On the one hand, humans show several signs of having a monogamous mating system. For example, humans are highly altricial-we have prolonged childhoods and rely heavily on extended families throughout our life spans (Alexander and Noonan, 1979). We also appear designed to form romantic pair bonds, having a dedicated neurochemistry of attachment associated with monogamy when comparisons are made across mammalian species (Fisher, 1998; Young, 2003). On the other hand, humans seem to possess evolved design features associated with multimale/multifemale or “promiscuous” mating systems. For example, humans possess psychological and physiological adaptations to sperm competition (Baker and Bellis, 1995; Shackelford and LeBlanc, 2001), such as women's adaptive timing of extrapair copulations (Gangestad and Thornhill, 1998; Haselton and Miller, 2006), men's specialized expressions of sexual jealousy (Buss, 2000; Schutzwohl, 2006), and the physical structure of the human penis serving as a semen displacement device (Gallup et al., 2003). Among men, causal sex with multiple partners is often viewed as desirable (Symons and Ellis, 1989; Oliver and Hyde, 1993), with most men agreeing to have sex with complete strangers when asked in field experiments (Clark and Hatfield, 1989). Adaptive patterns of premarital sex, extramarital sex, and mate poaching by both men and women have been documented across cultures (Broude and Greene, 1976; Schmitt et al., 2004a).
Using Taiwanese data, this study finds that tall males are more successful in mate selection and reproduction, but the results are weakly significant. Height is not helpful for females’ reproductive success. Specifically, tall males are more likely to have a partner at present or in the past, have at least one child, have more children, have a shorter period of celibacy and have a longer time duration of living with a partner in their lifetime. Using mediation analysis, the study shows that tall males’ reproductive success is not due to their achievements in the labour market (earnings), but is simply due to their height
per se
. Finally, a college student data set is used to explore the relation between height and dating hours. Tall male students have more dating hours, but no relation is found between females’ height and dating hours.
Heterosexual personal advertisements from two geographically separated, local, weekly newspapers were content-analyzed. Three significant patterns of findings emerged which shed light on gender differences in self-presentational style. First, women were found to be relatively more likely to offer instrumental or `male-valued' traits in their ads and to seek expressive or `female-valued' ones, while men showed the reverse pattern. This paradoxical finding was interpreted to reflect the influence of implicit notions of attraction and role expectations. Second, women were relatively more likely to offer weight and to seek height, while men were relatively more likely to offer height and to seek weight. This pattern was interpreted to reflect the influence of the `male-taller-norm' in mate selection as well as a societal bias toward thinness in women. Finally, as in previous studies of this sort, women were found to be relatively more likely to offer physical attractiveness and to seek professional status, while men were relatively more likely to offer professional status and to seek attractiveness. This pattern was interpreted to be consistent with traditional sex-role expectations wherein appearance is stressed for women and status for men. Overall, the findings show that advertisers exhibit an understanding of implicit theories of attraction: men and women tend to offer precisely those attributes which are sought by the opposite sex.
It has been suggested that an important factor influencing human mate selection is a social norm that the male should be taller than the female. With the aim of providing empirical evidence concerning the possibility of such a male-taller norm, height data were collected from bank account application forms of 720 couples. According to probability theory, the chance expectation for the occurrence of couples with females taller was 2/100. The actual value found was only 1/720, which was seen as supporting the notion of a male-taller norm.
Members of a prominent videodating organization were asked to read through a set of autobiographical profiles about prospective dates. These members were also instructed to `think aloud' about what factors (e.g. age, attractiveness, occupation, interests) they were considering in deciding whether or not to view that person's videotape. Age and attractiveness proved to be by far the most frequently mentioned factors in subjects' decision strategies. This result held for both men and women, younger and older members, and for individuals who had been members for either a short or a long period. These results are discussed in terms of the information overload and time constraints facing members of this organization in making their decisions, as well in the context of previous research on interpersonal attraction.
Meta-analysis was used to examine findings in 2 related areas: experimental research on the physical attractiveness stereotype and correlational studies of characteristics associated with physical attractiveness. The experimental literature found that physically attractive people were perceived as more sociable, dominant, sexually warm, mentally healthy, intelligent, and socially skilled than physically unattractive people. Yet, the correlational literature indicated generally trivial relationships between physical attractiveness and measures of personality and mental ability, although good-looking people were less lonely, less socially anxious, more popular, more socially skilled, and more sexually experienced than unattractive people. Self-ratings of physical attractiveness were positively correlated with a wider range of attributes than was actual physical attractiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated, in 2 quasi-experiments, the relation between specific adult female facial features and the attraction, attribution, and altruistic responses of adult males. Precise measurements were obtained of the relative size of 24 facial features in an international sample of photographs of 50 females. 75 undergraduate males provided ratings of the attractiveness of each of the females. Positively correlated with attractiveness ratings were the neonate features of large eyes, small nose, and small chin; the maturity features of prominent cheekbones and narrow cheeks; and the expressive features of high eyebrows, large pupils, and large smile. A 2nd study asked males to rate the personal characteristics of 16 previously measured females. The males were also asked to indicate the females for whom they would be most inclined to perform altruistic behaviors and to select for dating, sexual behavior, and childrearing. The 2nd study replicated the correlations of feature measurements with attractiveness. Facial features also predicted personality attributions, altruistic inclinations, and reproductive interest. Sociobiological interpretations are discussed. (73 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The multiple motive hypothesis of physical attractiveness suggests that women are attracted to men whose appearances elicit their nurturant feelings, who appear to possess sexual maturity and dominance characteristics, who seem sociable, approacheable, and of high social status. Those multiple motives may cause people to be attracted to individuals who display an optimal combination of neotenous, mature, and expressive facial features, plus desirable grooming attributes. Three quasi-experiments demonstrated that men who possessed the neotenous features of large eyes, the mature features of prominent cheekbones and a large chin, the expressive feature of a big smile, and high-status clothing were seen as more attractive than other men. Further supporting the multiple motive hypothesis, the 2nd and 3rd studies indicated that impressions of attractiveness had strong relations with selections of men to date and to marry but had a curvilinear relation with perceptions of a baby face vs. a mature face.
Physical attractiveness phenomena permeate society with somber ramifica tions. Correspondingly, practical applications of physical attractiveness phenomena are extensive. The consequence is that almost every person can benefit from knowledge about research on physical attractiveness. Such research material provides valuable information for persons established in their careers, as well as those preparing for a career. Similarly, parents at all stages of their life cycle should be cognizant of how physical attractiveness impacts the psychological and physiological development of children. Because no one is isolated from physical attractiveness phenomena, knowledge of this material should be imperative for everyone. This book consolidates research that specifically addresses physical attractiveness. The first summary was a classic review presented over 10 years ago (Berscheid & Walster, 1974). Since then the research literature has continued to grow, but no comprehensive review has again been published. Even though research summaries have been presented in a compilation of psychological abstracts (Cash, 1980), and in a discussion of stereotyping literature (Adams, 1982), the study of physical attractiveness phenomena is due for a comprehensive account and an analysis of the extensive, divergent research."
This chapter discusses physical attractiveness in social interactions. Physical attractiveness is, in many ways, a homely variable. The physical attractiveness variable is unpretentious for at least two reasons. First, it is unlikely that it will be found to be orthogonal to other dimensions, primarily intelligence, socioeconomic status, and perhaps genetically determined behavioral predispositions associated with morphological characteristics. Second, it seems highly unlikely that physical attractiveness will ever form the core concept of a psychological theory, even a much needed social perceptual theory, which will illuminate the way to useful and interesting predictions about social relationships. The chapter focuses on recent social psychological evidence, which suggests that even esthetic attractiveness may be a useful dimension for understanding certain social phenomena, and, perhaps, for illuminating some personality and developmental puzzles as well. Perception of the physical attractiveness level of another appears to be influenceable by the affective and experiential relationship between the evaluator and the person whose physical attractiveness level is to be judged, as well as by factors unique to the evaluator and the setting in which evaluations are made, although none of these factors have been the subject of much study. The impact of physical attractiveness upon the individual has been highlighted in the chapter.
Personal advertisements from a metropolitan newspaper were analyzed for content and amount of self-disclosure. Men and women disclosed information at the same rate. They also stipulated physical attractiveness, athleticism, and the desire for companionship equally often. Women, however, stipulated a desire for the partner's financial security and for marriage significantly more frequently than men.
This study investigated an increasing social phenomenon--newspaper advertising for dating or marital partners--in terms of the bargaining process involved. Content analysis of personal ads in a popular "respectable" singles newspaper revealed a pattern of offers and requests reminiscent of a heterosexual stock market. Exchange theory provided a theoretical context for analyzing the personal ads. Findings confirmed expectations that advertisers sought to maximize their profit by presenting a positive image of themselves. In addition, traditionally sex-appropriate characteristics were claimed and desired, suggesting that shifting sex role expectations are not evident in this type of mate-selection.
The quality of traditional reviews was compared with that of meta-analytic reviews. Articles were coded to provide information on several aspects of the review process. These included selection of primary studies, representation of the results from the primary studies, and interpretation of results. Reviews were sampled for the periods 1981-1983 and 1987-1988, allowing comparison between the two types of reviews within each sample and a comparison between samples. The data provided useful information related to whether one review process was superior to the other. Overall meta-analyses fared very well and appear to be the preferable method.
A content analysis was performed on profiles or self-advertisements from a magazine for singles to identify categories of exchange used by men and women. Generally, the findings supported the traditional social exchange notion of dating for men but not for women. That is, men's profiles tended to emphasize attractiveness and other expressive qualities of potential respondents in exchange for their own career status and attractiveness. Yet women's profiles indicated a similar pattern, desiring to exchange career and education and expressive qualities for attractiveness and various expressive qualities.
The relationship between height and attractiveness was investigated using self-reports of dating behavior and subjects' ratings of photographs depicting males and females of different heights. Shorter females were preferred more as dates, were dated more frequently, and were rated as more attractive than taller females regardless of the height of the male subjects. For males, the relationship between height and attractiveness was less clear Females expressed a general preference for dating males taller than themselves and reported dating taller males more frequently but did not rate their tall male dates as more attractive. Moreover, no relationship was found between the height of the male subjects and their self-reported dating frequency. Interestingly, females did rate a photographed male as more attractive when he was depicted as tall than when he was depicted as short relative to an adjacent female.
This study employed lonely hearts advertisements to investigate the effects of reported physical appearance on interpersonal attraction. The personal advertisements in a local Columbus magazine were coded in terms of the individuals gender, height, weight, hair color, eye color, and evaluative self-description of his or her own appearance. The magazine recorded the number of responses each ad received, and this constituted the dependent measure. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that more responses were received by women and by individuals providing nonnegative, evaluative self-descriptions than by their counterparts. Also, tall male advertisers and light female advertisers received more responses than their shorter and heavier counterparts. Finally, advertisers with red or salt and pepper hair received more responses than blonde and brunette advertisers. Discussion focused on the relations between these findings and those of past research and on the utility of lonely hearts advertisements in psychological research.
Two experiments were conducted to examine the influence of male height on interpresonal attraction. In Experiment 1, short, medium, and tall women evaluated pictures of men whom they believed to be either short, medium, or tall. On the basis of previous research, it was predicted that women's attraction to the men would be an increasing linear function of the men's height. This prediction was not confirmed; men of medium height were seen to be significantly more socially desirable than either short or tall men. This was true whether the female evaluator was short, medium, or tall; women did not differ in their evaluations. In Experiment 2, short, medium, and tall men evaluated the same male stimuli the women had evaluated in Experiment 1. These men not only gave their own evaluation of the male stimuli, but they also estimated how socially desirable the males pictured were to women. While men showed no evidence that they believed height was important to women, their own evaluations revealed that they liked and rated short men more positively than they did tall men. This was true regardless of the height of the male rater. These results were discussed in terms of social stereotypes and the importance of specifying situational context in the prediction of attraction.
Subjects were asked to rate various physical features, demographic characteristics, and personal qualities in terms of their degree of importance in determining choice of romantic partners in both sexual and meaningful or long-term relationships. Consistent with the sex-role stereotype, males placed relatively greater emphasis than females on the physical characteristics of their prospective romantic partners. Females more strongly emphasized the personal qualities of their prospective partners than did males. Both sexes more heavily weighed various personal qualities than physical characteristics in the context of romantic choice in a meaningful relationship.
Evolutionary and sociocultural theories of mate selection preferences contend that men place greater value on physical attractiveness than do women. Thus, meta-analyses were conducted of findings from 5 research paradigms that have the hypothesis: (a)questionnaire studies, (b) analyses of lonely hearts advertisments, (c) studies that correlate attractiveness with opposite-sex popularity, (d) studies that correlate attractiveness with liking by a dyadic interaction partner, and (e) experiments that manipulate the attractiveness and similarity of an opposite-sex stranger. The anticipated sex difference emerged in all five meta-analyses, although it was larger in research that examine self-reprots than in research that examined social behavior.
Physical attractiveness Advances in experimental social psychology
- E Berscheid
- E Walster
Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. (1974). Physical attractiveness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. New York: Academic Press.
Height as a basis for interpersonal attraction. Paper presented at the meeting of the Eastern Communication Association
- W E Hensley
Hensley, W. E. (1986, April). Height as a basis for interpersonal attraction. Paper presented at the meeting of the Eastern Communication Association, Atlantic City, NJ. Hensley, W. E. (1994). Height as a basis for interpersonal attraction.
The presentation of shortness in everyday life--height and heightism in American society: Toward a sociology of stature. Paper presented at the meeting of the The male-taller norm. in mate selection
- S D Feldman
Feldman, S. D. (1971). The presentation of shortness in everyday life--height and heightism in American society: Toward a sociology of stature. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, IL. Gillis, J. S., & Avis, W. E. (1980). The male-taller norm. in mate selection. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 6, 396-401.
The presentation of shortness in everyday life-height and heightism in American society: Toward a sociology of stature
- S D Feldman