There was a poll posted the other day regarding the topic of “Would You Date A Short Guy?” on Yahoo’s “Shine” website, along with a supporting commentary by Liz Brody (a member of Shine’s Staff).
This is not a new topic for discussion (it’s been going on for at least several decades, and maybe even since the beginning of time), but it’s always an interesting read.
The results of the poll itself so far are unsurprising. Last I checked, the five choices (for When it comes to dating, what’s your height rule?) were ranked by percentage of votes each as follows:
(1) A guy has to be taller than me, period = 37%
(2) He has to be at least as tall as I am = 36%
(3) I’m open to guys who are a couple of inches shorter = 10%
(4) I don’t care at all how tall a man is = 10%
(5) I am currently dating or married to a man who is shorter than I am = 8%
Nearly three-fourths of the respondents want their man to be at least as tall as they are and another tenth allow no more than a two-inch “fudge factor”. Also, there’s no indication (for those 8% who already have a shorter partner) as to how much shorter he is, and so quite a few of them might also fall within the two-inch fudge range.
That leaves only one-tenth of respondents who claim not to care about how tall their man is, and I would question whether they’re being totally candid (with themselves, at least). I suspect that further grilling would reveal that they perhaps don’t consider height to be the “sole” factor … or the “most important” factor.
But is their partner’s height completely unimportant to them? That seems to be a bit of a stretch to me (no pun intended), unless they’re giving the “noble” response instead of the heartfelt response.
Or perhaps really short women would pick that choice as, for them, there aren’t likely to be any men who are shorter than they are anyway.
It’s Darwinian
A lot of research has been done the last several decades comparing male height with male earnings (and other measures of male success) and all of that research shows a strong correlation between male height and male success. The taller the guy, the more successful he is likely to be (on average).
This “height effect” encounters the law of diminishing returns at the height of around 6’2” (i.e. further benefit is limited once a guy hits that height) but it is truly amazing just how significant the correlation is between height and success.
And there is ample research to show that women prefer taller men (other things being remotely comparable). And it makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint (even though being a shorter male is less of a handicap in the modern world where physical stature and strength are less of a factor in survival and success than in primitive times).
As a result, such a preference is highly likely to be “wired in” within women’s DNA.
So any time I see a survey like this one, I already know what the answer will be. And that makes such surveys pretty useless.
It’d be like asking people whether they prefer “pleasure” rather than “pain” (or “lots of money” rather than “no money”).
You would already know that most of those respondents would pick “pleasure” or “lots of money”.
There might be a few masochists or ascetics (or bored people trying to muck up your research) who would pick the other alternative, but the overall outcome would be entirely predictable here as well.
No surprises there either.
Stay tuned,
Mack Doppler
