Do Taller Men Have Prettier Girlfriends?

Feingold, Alan

doi:10.2466/pr0.1982.50.3.810

Cited by 32 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Nettle () found that men who were taller than average were more likely to find a long‐term partner. This is also consistent with evidence that women also prefer tall men as mates (Feingold, ; Herpin, ; Jackson and Ervin, ; Hensley, ; Oreffice and Quintana‐Domeque (). To account for this, we measure as a binary variable, and include in our specification, the marital status of each respondent.…”

Section: Data and Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Ethnicity as a Barrier to Childhood and Adolescent Health Capital in Tanzania: Evidence from the Wage‐Height Relationship

Elu¹,

Price²

2013

African Development Review

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This paper considers whether or not in Tanzania, ethnicity conditions access to health and nutrition during childhood and adolescence. We estimate height-augmented Mincerian earnings functions with data from the 2004 Tanzanian Household Worker Survey. Instrumental variable parameter estimates reveal that when the effects of unobserved investments in health and nutrition during childhood and adolescence on adult height are accounted for, the labor market return on height varies across ethnic groups in our sample. This suggests that in Tanzania ethnicity is a constraint on effective health care policy as there is ethnic discrimination in the provision of health and nutrition investment during childhood and adolescence that constrains adult height, living standards and economic growth. As such, public health policy in sub-Saharan Africa could potentially be more effective through reforms that eliminate any ethnic bias in the provision of health capital during childhood/adolescence. *The authors would like to thank several anonymous referees and participants of the

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Section: Data and Resultssupporting

confidence: 88%

Ethnicity as a Barrier to Childhood and Adolescent Health Capital in Tanzania: Evidence from the Wage‐Height Relationship

Elu¹,

Price²

2013

African Development Review

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“…In the latter study, men one standard deviation above the mean height had twice as many dates as did men one standard deviation below the mean. Tall men also have more attractive partners [17] , report greater relationship satisfaction and have lower levels of cognitive or behavioral jealousy than short men [18] , [19] . These differences in male attractiveness and relationship confidence appear to give taller men a fitness advantage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Advantage of Standing Up to Fight and the Evolution of Habitual Bipedalism in Hominins

Carrier

2011

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundMany quadrupedal species stand bipedally on their hindlimbs to fight. This posture may provide a performance advantage by allowing the forelimbs to strike an opponent with the range of motion that is intrinsic to high-speed running, jumping, rapid braking and turning; the range of motion over which peak force and power can be produced.Methodology/Principal FindingsTo test the hypothesis that bipedal (i.e., orthograde) posture provides a performance advantage when striking with the forelimbs, I measured the force and energy produced when human subjects struck from “quadrupedal” (i.e., pronograde) and bipedal postures. Downward and upward directed striking energy was measured with a custom designed pendulum transducer. Side and forward strikes were measured with a punching bag instrumented with an accelerometer. When subjects struck downward from a bipedal posture the work was 43.70±12.59% (mean ± S.E.) greater than when they struck from a quadrupedal posture. Similarly, 47.49±17.95% more work was produced when subjects struck upward from a bipedal stance compared to a quadrupedal stance. Importantly, subjects did 229.69±44.19% more work in downward than upward directed strikes. During side and forward strikes the force impulses were 30.12±3.68 and 43.04±9.00% greater from a bipedal posture than a quadrupedal posture, respectively.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results indicate that bipedal posture does provide a performance advantage for striking with the forelimbs. The mating systems of great apes are characterized by intense male-male competition in which conflict is resolved through force or the threat of force. Great apes often fight from bipedal posture, striking with both the fore- and hindlimbs. These observations, plus the findings of this study, suggest that sexual selection contributed to the evolution of habitual bipedalism in hominins.

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“…Height is related to attractiveness in men, with taller men having an advantage in being selected for dates (Shepperd and Strathman, 1989;Hensley, 1994), attracting more attractive partners (Feingold, 1982), and producing more offspring (Pawlowski et al, 2000). In this way, some of the effects of height discussed above may potentially be attributable to attractiveness.…”

Section: Attractivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution, Appearance, and Occupational Success

Little

Roberts

2012

Evol Psychol

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Visual characteristics, including facial appearance, are thought to play an important role in a variety of judgments and decisions that have real occupational outcomes in many settings. Indeed, there is growing evidence suggesting that appearance influences hiring decisions and even election results. For example, attractive individuals are more likely to be hired, taller men earn more, and the facial appearance of candidates has been linked to real election outcomes. In this article, we review evidence linking physical appearance to occupational success and evaluate the hypothesis that appearance based biases are consistent with predictions based on evolutionary theories of coalition formation and leadership choice. We discuss why appearance based effects are so pervasive, addressing ideas about a "kernel of truth" in attributions and about coalitional psychology. We additionally highlight that appearance may be differently related to success at work according to the types of job or task involved. For example, leaders may be chosen because the characteristics they possess are seen as best suited to lead in particular situations. During a time of war, a dominant-appearing leader may inspire confidence and intimidate enemies while during peace-time, when negotiation and diplomacy are needed, interpersonal skills may outweigh the value of a dominant leader. In line with these ideas, masculine-faced leaders are favored in war-time scenarios while feminine-faced leaders are favored in peace-time scenarios. We suggest that such environment or task specific competencies may be prevalent during selection processes, whereby individuals whose appearance best matches perceived task competences are most likely selected, and propose the general term "task-congruent selection" to describe these effects. Overall, our review highlights how potentially adaptive biases could influence choices in the work place. With respect to certain biases, understanding their origin and current prevalence is important in order to potentially reduce discrimination in the work place.

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Do Taller Men Have Prettier Girlfriends?

Cited by 32 publications

References 2 publications

Ethnicity as a Barrier to Childhood and Adolescent Health Capital in Tanzania: Evidence from the Wage‐Height Relationship

Ethnicity as a Barrier to Childhood and Adolescent Health Capital in Tanzania: Evidence from the Wage‐Height Relationship

The Advantage of Standing Up to Fight and the Evolution of Habitual Bipedalism in Hominins

Evolution, Appearance, and Occupational Success

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