FRIDAY, Aug. 23, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Tall men and short women appear to be the height of desire for those looking for a mate.
A new British study found that
taller-than-average men and shorter-than-average women are more successful in attracting mates and having children.
Those preferences probably developed during human evolution, says study author Daniel Nettle, a lecturer in the departments of biological sciences and psychology at Open University in Milton Keynes, England.
And, he adds, that probably explains why most men are taller than women.
"There may have been a time in the distant past where, in survival terms, it was advantageous for men to be big, and that would fit in with the kind of physical activities (such as hunting) they were doing," Nettle says.
"And it was advantageous for women to be small, which had to do with saving energy that would otherwise be expended in growing tall and using that (energy) instead on having offspring," he says.
Of course, human society and living conditions have changed, but those preferences seem stuck in our brains and still influence mate selection, Nettle says.
"So, even though the survival context has changed, this evolutionary process goes on because it's become wired into the psyche of the two sexes when they choose a partner."
His study examined the marital and parental status of 10,000 men and women born in Britain during one week in March 1958. They are part of Britain's National Child Development Study. As of the year 2000, he found, the taller men and shorter women in that group were more likely to be married or have children.
The study found that a man of average height (5 feet 8 inches) was less likely to have children than a man who is 6 feet 1 inch. Women between 4 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 1 inch were more likely to be married and have children than women with an average height of 5 feet 3 inches or taller.
The study was just published in the online edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences.
The findings provide "real world" support for earlier research that said women find taller men more attractive than men of average height, Nettle says.
"But what we didn't know is whether that actually means anything in the real world, or if that's just some sort of mental ideal that people will come up with if you put them on the spot in the psychology lab.
"So, we wanted some data that actually looks at the behavior of the real population of people to see if that actually gets played out in practice," Nettle says.
He notes the actual statistical advantages enjoyed by taller men and shorter women are quite small. However, the edge is large enough that, when repeated over and over, it can have a large impact on the overall size difference between men and women.
Nettle says he believes this means that, in general, men will remain taller than women, "for many, many hundreds of generations."
That may be bad news for tall women and short men. They could be playing the mating game shorthanded.
There's the fact that their counterparts are better able to capture someone's fancy. And, for example, he says, because women do tend to prefer men taller than themselves, a tall woman is more likely to look for a taller man. That means she could be facing a smaller pool of men to work from in trying to find a partner.
While this height-related mating tango mostly swirls around in our subconscious, that doesn't mean we're not aware of it, Nettle says.
Personal ads are an example.
"Men who are tall are very keen to tell you how tall they are in their adverts, and if they're not tall, they just don't mention it," Nettle says.
What To Do
This article from Texas A&M University notes that society shapes many of the behavioral differences between the genders.
And the American Psychological Association notes some mental health differences between men and women.
