Tall, dark, and handsome is the popular description used to describe
the perfect man for most women. From the brooding and sultry looks, women swoon
over these men because of their celebrated physical attractiveness.
However, science suggests setting your sights on much shorter, dark and
handsome men because they make better life partners.
According to a recent
study
(not peer reviewed), short men have a higher income and are more likely
to stay monogamous, making better boyfriends and husbands, and standing
head and shoulders above their much taller peers. Short men have been stigmatized in society because of their stature.
The cultural vision of taller men as being physically dominant and
potential protectors has been embedded into the psyche of many women,
creating a “prejudice” against shorter men. It’s unclear whether women
prefer this because of society’s pressure for women to be slim or
because of an evolutionary perspective.
Dr. David Frederick,
an assistant professor of Psychology at Chapman University, examines
how social remission processes and our evolved psychology interact to
influence our close relationships and our views of what is attractive.
He has hypothesized women may prefer a taller partner because it can
make them feel smaller, or women have developed a preference for taller
men because of the advantages height can provide them in male-on-male
competitions,
The Huffington Post reported.
To examine the effects of male height on various relationship
outcomes in longer-term relationships, researchers Dalton Conley, a
sociologist at New York University, and Abigail Weitzman, a Ph.D.
candidate, collected data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics — a
University of Michigan project that’s been collecting demographic data
on 5,000 families for almost 50 years. This data was used to look at how
a man’s height impacts different areas of his relationship after the
initial dating period. Conley and Weitzman looked at two sets of data,
from 1986 and 2009, and identified 3,033 heterosexual couples. The male
sample size was restricted between the ages of 23 and 45, and consisted
of men who were cohabitating with a woman. The male participants ranged in height from 4-foot-6 to 7-feet. In
relation to their partners, their height ranged 9 inches shorter to 2
feet taller. The researchers categorized these men into three groups:
“Short” men were defined as 5-foot-6 or less in 1986, 5-foot-7 or below
in 2009; “tall” men were at least 6-foot-1 in 1986 and 6-foot-2 in 2009.
The findings revealed short men were less likely to get divorced,
more likely to share housework, and be the breadwinners at home. These
men were somewhat less likely to get married, with an 18 percent
marriage rate lower than men of average height, at every age before 45.
Weitzman believes this is because short men may have a harder time
getting married, since they’re viewed as less masculine by society.
However, when they do find a partner, the divorce rates are 32 percent
lower for short men compared to the rates for tall and average men.
In regard to housework, shorter men perform eight hours and 28
minutes per week of housework — this comprises about 28 percent of the
total — compared to seven hours and 38 minutes for average men and seven
hours and 30 minutes for tall men,
New Republic
reported.
Weitzman believes tall men may be “aware of the status that
is conferred by their tallness,” which may make them prone to do less
work at home. While these men fare better with housework, but they also
tend to have higher household incomes than their partners. The
researchers estimated 79 percent of short men make more money than their
significant others, compared to 70 percent of average men, and 71
percent of tall men. This finding conflicts with previous research that
has found taller men earn more money.
Throughout the study, the researchers noticed a consistent pattern
with short men and their partners: They were more likely to partner with
women who are older, less educated, and younger. Twenty-one percent of
these men were with women who had not completed high school, compared to
16 percent of average men, and just 12 percent of tall men. Also, when
it comes to age, it is not just a number for them. In the entire sample
size, only nine percent of men partnered with a woman who was more than
three years older. Age is an area where the short men can exude their
masculinity by partnering with a younger woman.
This study coincides with another recent
study published in the
Journal of Family Issues,
which found women err on the side of caution when it comes to height
and online dating. About 50 percent of women restricted their online
dating searches to men who were taller than them. This finding was also
consistent when the same team of researchers took a survey of college
students and found about 30 percent of women would feel “awkward” or
“weird” dating a shorter guy.
Perhaps it’s time to put an end to these men getting the shorter end
of the stick. After all, your Mr. Right could be shorter than you.
Songstress and Mavin first lady, Tiwa Savage Balogun, has said her husband 
Keith Hinson and Michelle Knight
