Tall Men Do Better in the Dating Scene

The preference for taller men extends, it seems, beyond the boardroom and into the bedroom.

Steve Penner, the previous owner of a Boston-based dating service, says he heard it all the time. "It is common for many women to insist that any man they date must be "at least" four to six inches taller," he says.

And the reason may be genetic.

Tall men are more likely to get married and have children than short men.

Experts like James Gould from Princeton University believe that women's preference for tall men is hard-wired into the brain, and it's there because it relates to good health.

"When height is an indicator of health, this is not surprising, and if females are programmed to look for health, they would end up with taller males," Gould says. "It's entirely plausible this is true."

And a study published in the journal Nature seems to back up this theory. Robin I. M. Dunbar of the University of Liverpool and colleagues studied 3,200 men in their 20s to 50s, whose average height was 5'6." They found:

- Taller men are more likely to be married and have children than shorter men

- Childless bachelors are significantly shorter than married men

- Those with children were, on average, 1.2 inches taller than childless men

- Married men were an average of 1 inch taller than bachelors

Source: sixwise.com