Ladies, have you ever turned down a date with someone or broken up with a person because of his height - or lack thereof? If so, you might want to rethink your relationship requirements. According to a recent study, shorter men actually seem to have more successful marriages. New Study Reveals Interesting Link Between Men's Height And Divorce, by Taryn Hillin, huffingtonpost.com, August 29, 2014. In the study, researchers analyzed 25 years of data to determine whether a man's height affected the dynamics of his relationship. They found major differences between short men (less than 66") and tall men (over 73").
Specifically, short men married later in life, but were 32% less likely to divorce. Further, they were more likely to marry younger, less educated women who earned a much lower income, and did the majority of the housework. The lower divorce rate could be attributed to the fact that these men waited longer to get married and, thus, found a more compatible spouse. However, the fact that these men married younger women who would do the housework and who earned a lower income suggests something else, according to the researchers. The researchers hypothesized that height equals masculinity and, therefore, these men need other ways to demonstrate this trait.
Conversely, the study found that tall men married earlier in life, but were more likely to divorce. In addition, tall men married better-educated women who were closer to their age. According to the researchers, the reason for this is likely the opposite of that for the short men - they do not need the extra masculinity boost. In fact, the researchers concluded that "this indicates that the tallest men exchange their attractive attribute (height) for better-educated spouses, while short men are unable to do so." It seems, however, that short men have been able to make up for it in other ways, and end up with more successful marriages.