While you may have a preference when it comes to your ideal partner’s physical appearance, including their height, there may be more to it than just personal taste. In fact, a new study has suggested that if you’re a straight woman who insists on dating taller guys, you could end up a whole lot happier.
- Tall guys and short women = happy couples. According to the study, published by Kitae Sohn in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, we’ve always known that men tend to prefer tall guys for evolutionary reasons, but there’s actually another huge benefit when it comes to the happiness level of couples of this type.
- For some reason, tall guys have happier wives. Sohn used nationally representative data from Indonesia in drawing its conclusion, which was pretty strong across the board. “A greater height difference in a couple was positively related to the wife’s happiness,” the findings revealed. “This relationship gradually weakened over time and entirely dissipated by 18 years of marital duration. The husband’s resourcefulness was a minor mediator in the relationship.”
- That doesn’t excuse bad behavior. Just because tall men and shorter women tend to have more solid relationships, that’s not strictly down to height. In fact, the happiness level waned if the guy stopped putting in an effort and being a decent partner. “We thus argue that the husband’s height and its correlation made his wife initially happy, but their influence waned over time,” the study stated. “Nevertheless, the long period of the dissipation indicates a powerful impact of male height on women’s psychology, probably prepared by evolution.”
- Tall men have other attractive qualities. Other studies have suggested that women are more attracted to tall guys because they’re perceived as stronger and that they have better leadership skills, both things that are pretty hot, admittedly.
- Of course, you can be happy in any kind of relationship. Whether you’re a tall woman dating a shorter guy, dating someone your exact height, dating someone of the same gender, it doesn’t really matter. Relationships are complicated and way more complicated than just dating someone taller. Still, it’s fun to think about.
