5 ms·

Does anyone besides pop psychologists actually believe that?

CompelTechnic 8y ago
Yes. For example, most people that have ever seen any of the relevant statistics.
kbenson 8y ago
Yeah, I believe it. It may be slight, and depend quite a bit on the individual, but I believe it for the same reason I believe attractive people have advantages (and height is an attribute in attractiveness for many), including getting paid more, which is to say for a plethora of small reasons that make sense to me and all add up to the same conclusion. Increased confidence in dealing with others, including negotiating pay. Increased physical capability. Favoratism. Any number of other things. On the flip side, why wouldn't being more attractive provide benefits? Because people strive to always be rational and know their own biases so they can be fair? That's hardly how I see most people acting on a day to day basis. Because less attractive people will try to punish attractive people? Also not something I see often (or at all, really).
scarmig 8y ago
People have studied this. The effect is IIRC each inch of height for a man (within the sampled range) confers a 1-2% increase in income, after adjusting for other easily measured factors (race, education, hours worked, etc.) To give a sense of scale, a 5'4" man faces a larger "height gap" than the adjusted gender gap for women.
- rjf72 8y ago
  This doesn't necessarily mean what you think it would mean. As always the problem with social sciences is that correlation != causation. For instance taller people also have higher IQs. [1] Its for reasons like this that I think we're rather more likely to recreate Frankenstein than Gattaca. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence
  - kbenson 8y ago
    Although it's entirely possible that height and/or attractiveness as an advantageous cultural norm also explains this. If height is seen as attractive, and beauty leads to more opportunities in education (more accessible peer tutoring partners, better study group interaction, more likely to get help from a teacher, etc). But yes, teasing out the actual causes for anything like that seems impossibly hard (without breaking ethical guidelines), thus we have a lot of conjecture.
tuesdayrain 8y ago
There have been numerous studies showing how even extremely subtle things can influence people's perception. If you specifically asked someone "would you be willing to pay more for a good if you see unrelated expensive goods in the background?" Most people would say of course not. And yet studies show that the average person actually would be willing to pay more. I'd be shocked if something as blatantly obvious as height would have no impact on someone's perceived authority. Anecdotally, I can say that I find it much more natural to act as a leader around people who are shorter than me.
duado 8y ago
I would pay $25,000 for a proven-safe generic modification that made my son top 20% in height (excluding the absurd, above say 6’5”) or my daughter top 20% in “ideal figure.” Looks help people a lot in life.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  What happens when more than 20% of population has achieved maximum healthy height?
  - llampx 8y ago
    I belive we're hardwired to find certain traits attractive no matter how many people have them. If you move to a country where every man is tall and has a square jaw you probably won't stop finding that attractive, but you'll take that as a given and start looking for other traits.

Yes. For example, most people that have ever seen any of the relevant statistics.

Yeah, I believe it. It may be slight, and depend quite a bit on the individual, but I believe it for the same reason I believe attractive people have advantages (and height is an attribute in attractiveness for many), including getting paid more, which is to say for a plethora of small reasons that make sense to me and all add up to the same conclusion. Increased confidence in dealing with others, including negotiating pay. Increased physical capability. Favoratism. Any number of other things. On the flip side, why wouldn't being more attractive provide benefits? Because people strive to always be rational and know their own biases so they can be fair? That's hardly how I see most people acting on a day to day basis. Because less attractive people will try to punish attractive people? Also not something I see often (or at all, really).

scarmig 8y ago

People have studied this. The effect is IIRC each inch of height for a man (within the sampled range) confers a 1-2% increase in income, after adjusting for other easily measured factors (race, education, hours worked, etc.) To give a sense of scale, a 5'4" man faces a larger "height gap" than the adjusted gender gap for women.

rjf72 8y ago
This doesn't necessarily mean what you think it would mean. As always the problem with social sciences is that correlation != causation. For instance taller people also have higher IQs. [1] Its for reasons like this that I think we're rather more likely to recreate Frankenstein than Gattaca. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence
- kbenson 8y ago
  Although it's entirely possible that height and/or attractiveness as an advantageous cultural norm also explains this. If height is seen as attractive, and beauty leads to more opportunities in education (more accessible peer tutoring partners, better study group interaction, more likely to get help from a teacher, etc). But yes, teasing out the actual causes for anything like that seems impossibly hard (without breaking ethical guidelines), thus we have a lot of conjecture.

tuesdayrain 8y ago

There have been numerous studies showing how even extremely subtle things can influence people's perception. If you specifically asked someone "would you be willing to pay more for a good if you see unrelated expensive goods in the background?" Most people would say of course not. And yet studies show that the average person actually would be willing to pay more. I'd be shocked if something as blatantly obvious as height would have no impact on someone's perceived authority. Anecdotally, I can say that I find it much more natural to act as a leader around people who are shorter than me.

duado 8y ago

I would pay $25,000 for a proven-safe generic modification that made my son top 20% in height (excluding the absurd, above say 6’5”) or my daughter top 20% in “ideal figure.” Looks help people a lot in life.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
What happens when more than 20% of population has achieved maximum healthy height?
- llampx 8y ago
  I belive we're hardwired to find certain traits attractive no matter how many people have them. If you move to a country where every man is tall and has a square jaw you probably won't stop finding that attractive, but you'll take that as a given and start looking for other traits.