Posted on 09/10/2009 10:16:51 AM PDT by AreaMan
Taller people appear to live happier lives, according to a new study.
Researchers conducted a phone survey among more than 454,065 adults aged 18 and older between January 2008 and April 2009.
Participants were asked to give their height as well as answer questions about their standard of living.
Writing in the journal Economics and Human Biology, researchers said they used the Cantril "self-measuring striving scale", which allows participants to describe their quality of life through imagining a “life ladder” with rungs numbered from zero to 10 at the top.
The top rung is associated with the “best possible life for you” and the bottom rung is the “worst possible life for you”.
Researchers found that taller people reported being more happy with their life than those who were shorter.
Men who were taller than 5ft 10in ranked themselves at an average of 6.55 on the ladder scale. Men who were below average height, ranked themselves at an average of 6.41.
Among women, those who were taller than an average height of 5ft 4in ranked themselves 6.64, compared to 6.55 in shorter women.
Researchers also noted that men and women who were above average in terms of height were more likely to report overall happiness and less likely to report sadness.
"Surprisingly people who say that their lives are the 'best possible' are slightly shorter on average than those who are a step or two below,” Angus Deaton from Princeton University told BBC News.
"Perhaps the 8 percent of people who think their lives cannot be improved are different in other respects."
Additionally, they found that taller men reported worrying less.
"There's no direct correlation between income and happiness - surveys going back years show that,” psychologist Dr Colin Gill told BBC Health.
"But there does appear to be a correlation between height and happiness and height and income.
"If you look at this study, the people who are happiest are not the very tallest. There is a threshold of height tolerance - at about 6ft 5in to 6ft 6in.
"Height does matter, it's always mattered for a very obvious reason - when you are born you are shorter than the people who look after you and have authority over you,” he added. “And that power relationship never reverses."
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On the Net:
So says the 5'7" man.
Obviously, because we can reach the top shelves.
And eat more.
Exactly.
Also, I’m not worried about being shanghaied to go bake cookies in Keebler’s Hollow Tree sweatshop.
(6’3” here)
Someday when I can finally afford a Porsche 911, I will at least be able to fit in it, and if I’m not too old by then, get back out of it.
If one examines the biographies of some of the most successful people in the world, a common thread among many of them is long periods of deep frustration and pain.
I guess happiness is not as strong a motivator.
I would fathom a guess that those who fall within a reasonable range from the norm in height are generally happier than those who fall toward the extremes, be it taller or shorter. Just seems like common sense that life might be slightly more difficult for those who are the most “different”.
Well, I’m 5’3” but that’s what high heels are for. Voila...happy!
They just moved into an immense Chinese tree.
You are targeted.
By elves.
I’m 6’8” in high heels.
I’m 6’6 and feeling hostile. Maybe I should stop reading the news and get happy.
It's just like the first time every time with a height difference that big :P
Bow chicka wow wow.....
I don’t know. Jeremy Clarkson seems to do ok in all the sports cars, and he’s 6’5”.
The corollary is that many many women are unhappy and insecure.
That is the reason for high heels.
O NOES! Well, they have to catch me first.
I'm the guy in yellow.
And I'm wearing heels.
That's why some of us short ladies invest in a tall man.
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