Variable preferences for sexual dimorphism in height as a strategy for increasing the pool of potential partners in humans

Abstract

Human mate preferences are known to be related to a number of morphological traits. Those relating to female waist-to-hip ratio or body mass index and to male height appear to be distinctive mate-choice criteria and are known to be related to reproductive success. In addition to absolute height, a possibly important mate-choice criterion may be relative height, i.e. the extent of sexual dimorphism in stature (SDS = male height/female height) between oneself and a potential partner. Here, I demonstrate that people adjust their preferences for SDS in relation to their own height in order to increase the potential pool of partners. This causes nonlinearity in assortative mating in relation to height and shows that in relation to intrapopulational SDS both men and women are responsible for stabilizing selection.

Concordant preferences for actual height and facial cues to height

“…Furthermore, we examined whether preferences for facial cues to height are assortative based on own height, similar to the assortative preferences in body height reported elsewhere (Salska et al, 2008;Swami et al, 2008). Based on previous research on actual height preferences (Courtiol et al, 2010;Jackson & Ervin, 1992;Pawlowski, 2003;Salska et al, 2008;Shepperd & Strathman, 1989), we predict women will prefer faces of men who appear to be taller than average, and men will prefer faces of women who appear to be short to average height. We expect preferences for height cues in the face to reflect self-reported preferences for actual height.…”

“…Both men and women prefer romantic relationships in which the man is taller than the woman (Courtiol et al, 2010;Higgins, Zheng, Liu, & Sun, 2002;Jackson & Ervin, 1992;Pawlowski, 2003;Salska et al, 2008). Women prefer taller men (Shepperd & Strathman, 1989) in general, though perhaps not extremely tall men (Courtiol et al, 2010;Hensley, 1994).…”

“…Men's preferences for women's heights are less clear, with various studies reporting male preferences for short (Shepperd & Strathman, 1989), average height (Swami et al, 2008), or taller than average (Courtiol et al, 2010) women. Previous research has demonstrated assortative preferences for height, with height preferences being influenced by a person's own height (Fink, Neave, Brewer, & Pawlowski, 2007;McManus & Mascie-Taylor, 1984;Pawlowski, 2003;Salska et al, 2008;Swami et al, 2008), and taller women and shorter men are more tolerant of dating partners of their own height (i.e. -prefer a lower ''sexual dimorphism in stature''; Pawlowski, 2003).…”

“…Previous research has demonstrated assortative preferences for height, with height preferences being influenced by a person's own height (Fink, Neave, Brewer, & Pawlowski, 2007;McManus & Mascie-Taylor, 1984;Pawlowski, 2003;Salska et al, 2008;Swami et al, 2008), and taller women and shorter men are more tolerant of dating partners of their own height (i.e. -prefer a lower ''sexual dimorphism in stature''; Pawlowski, 2003). Further research has demonstrated that women have stronger preferences for tall men during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle (Pawlowski & Jasienska, 2005), and that women's height preferences in men are positively predicted by conformity to views on traditional gender roles and positively correlate with personality traits such as self-esteem and extraversion (Swami et al, 2008).…”

Height, Marriage and Reproductive Success in Gambian Women

“…Western men do clearly show preferences for shorter women, or at least women who are shorter than they are. In laboratory studies of mate preferences, men tend to rate shorter women as more attractive than taller ones (Shepperd & Strathman,1989), and rate relationships in which the female partner is shorter than the male as more desirable than the reverse (Pawlowski, 2003). Lonely hearts advertisements get fewer responses from men if the advertising woman describes herself as tall (Pawlowski & Koziel, 2002).…”