So much for common interests, a sense of humor or a healthy sex life. A new study has shown that couples who demonstrate significant height differences have marital happiness. Well, the women are happier, at least.
Buy an “Intelligence is sexy” t-shirt!
The study, based on data analyzed by Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, shows that women whose partners are taller are happier in their relationships. The data was collected from 7,850 women during a long-term population survey. Dr. Kitae Sohn, the researcher responsible for the data analysis, concluded that “a greater height difference in a couple was positively related to the wife’s happiness.”
The study also showed that women who are attracted to taller men are more fertile as a result of this attraction. Sohn notes, “the female preference for male height increased women’s reproductive fitness.”
The study specifically stated that while wives with taller husbands were happier, these results changed over time. “Although it has been known that women prefer tall men in mating for evolutionary reasons, no study has investigated whether a taller husband makes his wife happier,” Dr. Sohn posits; however, “this relationship gradually weakened over time and entirely dissipated by 18 years of marital duration.” One can only assume that for those relationships that continued happily, other key factors came into play, as the study explains “that the husband’s height and its correlates made his wife initially happy, but their influence waned over time.”
Read: 6 Simple Things We Do Every Day that Take Away our Happiness
As this particular study only analyzed the data provided by women, no conclusions can be drawn as to whether or not men were happier in these relationships. It is certainly interesting to note, however, the substantial role evolution continues to play in human attraction.
