Tall men prefer short women for flings, study suggests trends now
Tall men typically prefer petite women for short-term relationships while women always prefer taller men, a study has found.
Gravitating toward shorter women for romantic flings is more than just personal preference — it is based on biology and psychology, according to researchers at universities in Cuba, Canada, Norway, and the United States.
A preference for height is widely accepted, especially in Western countries, where an increase in height from the 25th percentile to the 75th – about five inches – is likely to earn a person about nine to 15 percent more in annual salary.
The team’s findings suggested that men, on average, preferred women with heights of about five feet three inches to five feet five inches when looking for more casual, short-term relationships.
The classic female descriptor for a good-looking man – tall, dark, and handsome – held true in the study as well, which found that shorter women prefer men taller than them for shorter and longer term relationships.
Men prefer shorter women for short-term than for long-term relationships, while women's preferences for men’s height did not differ by the type of relationship whether long or short
Men were shown these minimalistic drawings of women from the back to choose their preferred heights for short-term and more committed long-term relationships
Women also rated their preferred heigh in a male romantic partner with most of them choosing men about one inch taller than the average in their country
The researchers behind the study recruited people from their general populations and included 536 people, 333 of whom were women. The vast majority of them, about 93 percent, described themselves as heterosexual.
On average, the men measured 178 cm tall, about five feet 10 inches, while the women’s average height was 165 cm, or five feet five inches.
Female participants were shown two sheets of paper that contained five different minimalistic drawings of men from the back measuring different heights ranging from five-foot-five to six-foot-one.
Men received similar sheets showing drawings of women from the back measuring heights from five feet to five-foot-eight. Each drawing was labeled with a height measurement.
Asked their ideal height in a woman for
