i'm sure Steven Hawking will be pleased to hear that...
Posted on 08/25/2006 4:30:35 PM PDT by presidio9
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.
Doesn't the NBA alone disprove that theory?
This corellation is not a surprise. Good nutrition and the avoidance of recurring or chronic illness results in greater height, within the range of one's genetic possibility. Those factors also lead to greater academic success.
Mike Dukakis?
I think that that is pretty nearly always three years.
Albert Einstein? 5'9"
I can say this because I am 6'3. /S
If you're not East Asian.
Isn't John Kerry like 6'4" or something?
i'm sure Steven Hawking will be pleased to hear that...
6'6 here. Let me know if anyone needs help with the big words. ;)
well if they don't... then the LBL(Lesbian Basketball League) does!!!
Being a guy who is all of 5'6" "tall" I can say with certainty that of all of my employees who happen to be taller than me are quite intelligent. But, I'm still the boss.
Even East Asians will be taller and healthier, relative to other East Asians, with good nutrition and medical care. The Japanese have seen a significant increase in their average height since World War II, even though there are no additional genetic factors to call for it (no influx of Scandinavians into the gene pool, for instance).
Albert Einstein was 5'9" tall.
NBA players get paid a lot of money to play their favorite game. They may not all be smart, but they are successful on some level!
At 5'6", you're still taller than I am.
And if the freakishly tall are in fact "smarter", how come we still live longer?
Got'cha by an inch.....
Considering that young men suddenly given ridiculous amounts of money often do stupid things, I'm not sure I agree. Despite exceptions like Artest, the crime ratio for NBA players is probably a lot smaller than considerably shorter NFL players. Major league baseball players have had some pretty stupid incidents over the years. Some of the NBA big men over the years have been pretty sharp, Wilt, Russell, David Robinson are just a few of the NBA giants who come across as having a good head on their shoulders.
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