The statement about shorter men earning less ("shorter men don’t marry as often, in part because they earn less") was surprising to me and I decided to investigate.<p>I saw similar statements elsewhere[1]:<p>> A 2020 study in the scientific journal PLOS One analyzed economic data from over 3,500 Chinese adults and found that every additional centimeter of height was correlated with a 1.3% increase in a person's annual income.<p>And in another place[2], a 1984–2005 study:<p>> Results at mean values for males indicate that being 10 cm taller is associated with (...) a $1874–2306 income premium<p>Fingers crossed for remote work bringing some sort of equalizer effect here.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/01/19/shorter-height-lower-salaries-height-discrimination-is-real-and-can-be-economically-devastating/" rel="nofollow">https://www.salon.com/2023/01/19/shorter-height-lower-salari...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1570677X07000676?via%3Dihub" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15706...</a>
This is a fantastic write-up. They take a number that sounds incredibly biased, "woah 1/40 pour one out for the short kings" and shows how this is predicted by only the distribution of men/women's heights and that despite the preference among women for taller men and men for shorter women the effect isn't enough to move the number away from what you would get with random partner selection.
Related question: how often does the wife earn a higher salary? Answer here: <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/04/13/in-a-growing-share-of-u-s-marriages-husbands-and-wives-earn-about-the-same/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/04/13/in-a-gr...</a>
The author of the Columbia post dug through all the papers and found the statistics were based on a small and unrepresentative sample of married couples. Eg the sample set said the median men’s height is 5’11” which is much higher than the American average.<p>Garbage in. Garbage out.
Real women don't need taller husbands.<p>Real men don't care if they have to take out tall(er) statuesque blondes.<p>It would be interesting to look at age ranges of preferences here, I predict that the older the men and women being studied, the less body height is important.
> "Mate" has this anthropological, scientistic feel to it.<p>Every trait discussed here is being selected for. There are evolutionary pressures at play here regardless of how complicated you think our social and cognitive functions are, when the outcome isn’t complicated.<p>Any sex linked trait that promotes height is being selected for on the X chromosome.