Taller People ar Smarter

Abbey Normal

Senior Member
Jul 9, 2005
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Hmmm. I guess I like this study.

Taller people are smarter: study
Fri Aug 25, 5:53 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - While researchers have long shown that tall people earn more than their shorter counterparts, it's not only social discrimination that accounts for this inequality -- tall people are just smarter than their height-challenged peers, a new study finds.

"As early as age three -- before schooling has had a chance to play a role -- and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests," wrote Anne Case and Christina Paxson of Princeton University in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The findings were based primarily on two British studies that followed children born in 1958 and 1970, respectively, through adulthood and a U.S. study on height and occupational choice.

Other studies have pointed to low self-esteem, better health that accompanies greater height, and social discrimination as culprits for lower pay for shorter people.

But researchers Case and Paxson believe the height advantage in the job world is more than just a question of image.

"As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns," they wrote.

For both men and women in the United States and the United Kingdom, a height advantage of four inches equated with a 10 percent increase in wages on average.

But the researchers said the differences in performance crop up long before the tall people enter the job force. Prenatal care and the time between birth and the age of 3 are critical periods for determining future cognitive ability and height.

"The speed of growth is more rapid during this period than at any other during the life course, and nutritional needs are greatest at this point," the researchers wrote.

The research confirms previous studies that show that early nutrition is an important predictor of intelligence and height.

"Prenatal care and prenatal nutrition are just incredibly important, even more so than we already knew," Case said in an interview.

Since the study's data only included populations in the United Kingdom and the United States, the findings could not be applied to other regions, Case said.

And how tall are the researchers?

They are both about 5 feet 8 inches tall, well above the average height of 5 feet 4 inches for American women.

A copy of the paper can be found at http://papers.nber.org/papers/w12466.pdf.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060825/ts_nm/economy_height_dc
 
Bwahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Sounds like eugenics to me. Thought this sort of thinking went out with the Nazis. Superficial partial studies of a small group are highly questionalbe. But hey I'm only 5'11' so maybe I just can't quite "comprehend" the study. On the other hand Anne and Christina are probably right so we must exterminate short babies and sterilize short people beginning immediately. See "Mein Kampf" for details.
 
Bwahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Sounds like eugenics to me. Thought this sort of thinking went out with the Nazis. Superficial partial studies of a small group are highly questionalbe. But hey I'm only 5'11' so maybe I just can't quite "comprehend" the study. On the other hand Anne and Christina are probably right so we must exterminate short babies and sterilize short people beginning immediately. See "Mein Kampf" for details.

all i can say is i am four inches taller than you
 
I never knew I was stupid! How come y'all didn't tell me!

:scratch:

:tears1:

Being only 5'9" I'm having difficulty understanding my own post!
 
I'm 5'4", and I have something to say... helloooo? Can you hear me up there?


Ah HA! It's not that tall people are smarter; they just can't HEAR the intelligent comments of their height-challenged brethren WAAAYY up there above the floor!

:D
 
I am 5'8", which is below average height for a male. I also scored a 32 on the ACT, made an 'a' in multivariable calculus, and can calculate statistics in my head in mere seconds. My mom is not even quite 5'4", and scored a 35 on the ACT and speaks near-fluent French. I also can't honestly say that I saw a higher incidence of intelligence among either short or tall people in high school. I knew dropouts and 4.0'ers ranging randomly from under 5' all the way up to 7'.
 
Personally I don't think this study really shows that being tall is the causation of high intelligence, it's a correlative statistic. The reason for corellation is because both height and intelligence, as the article states, are greatly affected by early development nutrition. The thing is, people can have great nutrition all throughout childhood and still be short due to a myriad of factors. As such, we won't be seeing any government sponsored to cull the shortys anytime soon. I wouldn't read anything serious into this study.

Eh, looks like I pretty much just repeated exactly what the article said, but in a condensed version. Forget I said anything.
 
I don't know about intelligence, but my experience is that short men are EVIL.

I've known plenty of brilliant short men and women. The women are fine but the men have serious emotional and mental problems.

Not scientific, but this is my personal observation. Apologies to any short men who are not evil. On the other hand the evil short men I know do not recognize the fact that they are evil. :thumbdown:
 
nuc said:
I don't know about intelligence, but my experience is that short men are EVIL.

I've known plenty of brilliant short men and women. The women are fine but the men have serious emotional and mental problems.

Not scientific, but this is my personal observation. Apologies to any short men who are not evil. On the other hand the evil short men I know do not recognize the fact that they are evil.
Define "short men."
 
I'm referring to very short men, say 5'4" and under. I can't think of many I personally know who do not have the Napoleon complex and make life difficult for people around them. They seem to overcompensate.
 
This study brings to mind a study that was done some years back that said people with big feet have higher IQ's than people who have small feet. I guess these two studies would dovetail if tall people had big feet, and small people had little feet, which in all probability is the case. If there's any academics on the board who are looking for a new study to do....
 
All I can say is that I'm 5'2" nearly, and screw the study! :laugh: btw, I'm gonna ban that tall Said1 one of these days! When she least expects it! A short day, yah!
 

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