Via The Independent:
Researchers quizzed 700 men and women about their ideal partner height, as well as what would be the minimum and maximum acceptable. A second part of the study asked 50,000 men and women how satisfied they were with their own height. The most satisfying height for a man is 6ft 3in; for a woman, it’s 5ft 9in.
“Both men and women prefer to be in a couple where the man was taller than the woman, but not too tall, and the preference was most pronounced in women who, unlike men, considered partner heights unacceptable if they resulted in her being taller,” says evolutionary psychologist Gert Stulp, from the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, who led the study. “We show for the first time, that men and women differ strongly with respect to the partner height difference they found most satisfactory.”
A researcher at Similar Minds conducted their own survey and asked short, average, and tall men and women about their height preferences in the opposite sex:
Based on data from Similar Minds
They wrote:
If you adjust for the height difference of men and women (men are @5in taller), men have an almost identical opposite direction height preference. Adjusting for the height difference of men and women, women would still prefer men .3 to 5.4 inches taller than them (the unadjusted preference range is 5.3 to 10.4 inches taller). Men prefer women 4.93in shorter to 1.65in taller than them. Thus, men have approximately a one inch larger acceptable range, on average. That one inch is on the taller end of the preferred range. So men, are more likely to self report as being attracted to slightly taller girls, whereas women do not share that accommodation in the opposite direction. The female range preference ends at slightly above their gender adjusted height. From an evolutionary standpoint this all makes sense. Preference selection should be mirrored in the sexes and any flexibility is more likely to show up in males since women exert greater selection power than men, on average.
This is an obvious mismatch of preferences. If the short woman prefers the average man and if the average woman prefers a man somewhere in between the average and the tall, then it is clear that more men are left without a chair when the music stops. One rebuttal is that tall women are left out, but these surveys indicate that men won’t shut out tall women as quickly as women will shut out short men. Women and men do end up settling for something less than their preferences, but settling doesn’t come without a cost. But in general, short men are out of favor. Female hypergamy acts on other male characteristics as well, but height is one that is easily observed and can also serve as a proxy for overall dominance. It’s not the end of the world; it’s just a setback.
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“evolutionary psychologist Gert Stulp, from the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands”
Wow, I can’t believe there even are evolutionary psychologists in the Netherlands. Maybe there is hope after all.
There is also something of an alph/beta problem here. Women’s hypergamy chases the alphas, in this case height is the alpha characteristic. So nevermind being short, even if you’re average height you’re at a disadvanatge.
Off-topic take a look. H/t Joe Rebel at Eradica.
http://www.infowars.com/dhs-supplier-provides-shooting-targets-of-american-gun-owners/
I noticed this in college. The same girls who flirted with me during the week wouldn’t give me the time of day during parties on the weekends. The difference? During the week, they wore flats and I was 4-5 inches taller than them, but on weekends, they wore heels and were almost as tall/taller than me. I also knew short women (barely 5 feet), who were obsessed with men’s height to the point that they would overlook a lot of personality defects in order to go out with guys who were 6’4″ or taller.
“If you adjust for the height difference of men and women (men are @5in taller)…”
Why did they adjust ANYTHING? Sexual dimorphism dictates that there’s going to be differences between the sexes. There’s no reason to adjust the numbers. The fact that they “adjusted” the numbers shows a bias towards gender equalism bullshit.
Men prefer women 5 inches shorter than them. Guess what? This is damn near the exact average height difference between men and womens. It corresponds with reality.
Whereas only the tallest women had a height preference that was close to the average height difference. The larger discrepancy in the groups of shorter women show that they seek men above mean in height terms–this demonstrates what we might call “height hypergamy.”
Ah well, I’ve come to accept this situation, and adapted via alpha behavioral modifications, and wearing lifts.
Wow! I’m the ideal height —– yet, i was never body-image content in my rambunctious youth; actually, as a alpha-male body with a beta-artist temperament, rather than be a 200-lb, 6’3″ h.s. male, I would’ve preferred to have been a ectomorphic spawn of Jimi Hendrix & Keith Richard —— adolescent heroes who symbiotically idealized my split racial identity.
It’s self-obsessive personal bits like that that tends to make me think these studies are somewhat ridiculous; yeah, at a base level they can note and document aggregate patterns —– but the self-obsessed detrius of one’s history almost always makes for what REALLY counts in recalling what compelled them in terms of ideal looks and features.
BTW, such memories, like in my case, are also almost always painfully ridiculous in retrospect.
these 5 ft 1 inch women have a lot of nerve. we must accept reality and do the best we can with what we have. fat women deal with obesity by calling themselves curvy and insinuating that all normal sized women are anorexic. instead of becoming delusional like them do everything within your power to improve what you can. read roissy first and foremost.
The last girl I dated was about an inch shorter than me. The night I met her she was wearing heels. Never saw her in heels again for 7 months.
It’s interesting how men and women face different obstacles in dating, but have offsetting advantages as well. Men are somewhat less in control of the factors that make them attractive: a man who is short, not athletically or artistically inclined, or naturally introverted will have a hard time overcoming these factors because they’re all relatively inherent (yes, men can and should work out, learn game, etc. but the fact remains they have a harder time increasing their attractiveness beyond what nature gave them). OTOH, men are less dependent on youth and beauty for their attractiveness, and can thus remain appealing well into paunchy middle age and beyond. Women are more in control of their sexiness (almost any woman who keeps herself slim, dresses appealingly, and acts feminine can do well in the dating market), but they face The Wall in their late 20′s/early 30′s at which point their sex appeal expires quickly and never returns. Few women would date a guy who’s 5’6″, but few men would date a woman who’s 40.
http://delicioustacos.com/2012/12/11/skeptical-dinklage/
PA,
Based on the article, it sounds like the government is concerned about civil unrest.
My sister is 4’10″ and will not even want to entertain the idea of dating anyone under 6′
She’s going to be out on meds.
Two unanswered questions though. One, if so, why are they anticipating civil unrest apparently involving “nontraditional parties” like pregnant women and ten year old kids, all being white. Two, many of those targets feature people in their homes; none are set in an unrest type of context.
This is genuinely creepy.
P.A.,
I noticed some of the public figures featured in some of the ads on that site that you linked to above.
So I just have to ask: Are you a Alex Jones fan?
Sorry, I don’t know who A. Jones is. I’m also unfamiliar with the site I linked.
Well, that’s relief…… Do a bit of Googling and you’ll likely know what I mean.
nikcrit,
He might take his conspiracy theories too far, but I can’t blame him for not trusting the U.S. government. It’s all about staying in power for them.
I can’t imagine who would want to practice shooting at those targets. You could find scary looking white, hispanic and Asian men. It wouldn’t have to be all black men.
Revo Luzione:
“Whereas only the tallest women had a height preference that was close to the average height difference. The larger discrepancy in the groups of shorter women show that they seek men above mean in height terms–this demonstrates what we might call “height hypergamy.””
Revo is right. What you are seeing here is female hypergamy writ vertically. Female hypergamy affects woman’s attraction triggers in response to hundreds of different male characteristics; she wants a man with mo’ money, mo charm, mo status, mo savvy, mo game, mo connections, mo height, mo resources, mo investment, mo romantic gestures, mo pretty much everything except….
mo’ looks!
Yes, folks, studies have shown that women in relationships with relatively somewhat worse-looking men were the happiest. It appears that women subconsciously recognize where their true power lies, and they want to leverage it as much as possible, which means, in practice, it’s to their advantage to date men who aren’t quite as facially attractive as themselves. (This innate preference probably also serves to reduce the chance that the man will cheat and move his emotional and material resources elsewhere.)
Anyhow, male height is a very interesting case study of female desire because it would appear that very short men have it tougher than do very ugly men. It’s a wonder then, if shortness is such an obstacle to men’s mating success, why it hasn’t been selected out of the population wholesale? There is a study out there (if you want to search for it) showing that short women are more fertile than are tall women, and you can posit from its results that evolution selected for short women with the unfortunate side effect that short brothers of short women were also selected for. Thus, short men are still with us.
I’m not sure I fully buy this theory, but it’s food for thought. It could also be that there have never been as many tall women historically as there are today, relative to the average height of men, and this height growth of women has effectively rendered a larger portion of the male population unattractive (from their lofty perspective). Female-skewed height growth is in line with a general masculinization of Western women, as observed in the narrowing of hips, the lantern-ing of jaws, and the snarky acidifying of personalities.
“I can’t imagine who would want to practice shooting at those targe”
Considering the source and publication of the article, I’m not even sure I can take the story and premise on face value yet; that publication is way out there —– and I don’t just mean in partisanship; I’m talking in basic journalistic newsgathering.
As for Jones possibly being healthily skeptical if perhaps a bit ‘out there?’ Please don’t get me started; his theoretical facts are what T.S. Eliot called “hints, followed by guesses followed by firm convictions.’ Empircism need not apply!
@CH – Short height wasn’t bred out because of those many fertile, cute short girls who had children at younger ages, passing on their short genes to sons who may have later been selected for income or food security. That factor combined with the “Napoleon Complex”. How many sales staffs throughout America have a guy in their top 5 or 10 who is 5’6″ or under? I’ve worked at two firms where the top sales guy or no. #2 was a short guy. Sometimes an obstacle makes people work harder for more rather than mope in a puddle of victimhood.
Nickrit, if you go to the website of the company that makes those targets, you will see those photos. Unless they took them down. I saw the pregnant woman photo on their site earlier.
SOBL1,
Shorter men seem more willing to commit to one woman at a younger age. It’s probably because they don’t get as much out of playing the field.
I’ve been noticing it all of my life – the biggest Height Queens of all are physically attractive short women. I’m a product of it myself, my mother is barely 5 ft. and my dad a 6’2” athlete.
I’m 5’8″, and always felt that I had a better shot at women of average height than I did with short women.
Lincoln is very right, short women are the worst heightists around. I’m around 5’7.5, and seem to do best with women in the 5’4-5’7 range. Worse thing about being short? If you try really hard to get that high profile job, raise, promotion or whatever it is you want, you still risk being pegged with short man syndrome or napoleon complex. I’ve also noticed that taller men hate taking orders from shorter men, which stirs up all kinds of shit. Best thing about being a shorter guy? Tall women and boobs!
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