Grow Taller

“All limitations are self-imposed.” — Ernest Holmes

Mark Borden of The New Yorker recently reported in an article called Shortchanged that there is a connection between height and money earned.

“In August, two Princeton economists released a study titled ‘Stature and Status: Height, Ability, and Labor Market Outcomes.’ The aim of the paper, by Anne Case and Christina Paxson, was to attempt to explain why tall people generally earn more than short people. The question is not a new one. More than a hundred years ago, social scientists established the correlation between height and socioeconomic status, and they’ve been trying to solve the enigma of what has been called the ‘height premium’ ever since.” A copy of the study can be found by clicking here.

Soon after the study was available, “Reuters published a story on the paper under the headline ‘TALLER PEOPLE ARE SMARTER”STUDY.’ Within days, Case and Paxson had received dozens and dozens of e-mails from outraged readers. ‘I have no idea if it was the fact that women had written the study, but half of the ones I got were from short men,’ Case said the other day.”

The Reuters article states, “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.”

They wrote, “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.”

“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.”

Malcolm Gladwell had a few things to say about the topic, “It’s worth, I think, fleshing out the height argument a bit more. My guess is that we have an attraction to tall men for evolutionary reasons: when you’re living in a cave, height is a fairly good proxy for physical strength–and that’s not a bad criterion for choosing a leader.”

“It’s also the case that that bias–if it’s as hard-wired as it seems–can create a real advantage for tall people: if they’ve been tall their whole lives, then they’ve been looked up to by others their whole lives, and by the time they’ve reached their thirties or forties, they’ve had a lifetime of experience with being thought of as a leader. That’s a real advantage. But being comfortable with being a leader–and having people make a immediate association between you and leadership–is not, of course, all it takes to be a good leader. And that’s the problem.”

Most of these articles all then add a disclaimer that height is tied to childhood nutrition. So what’s the point of all of this… oh, I don’t know. I just thought it was ironic. I’m 5’10” and I’ve never found height to be an advantage. I was close to this size in sixth grade and remember a younger student once stopped me in the hallway to show me his bathroom pass… remember those? Anyway, he thought I was a teacher. It’s taken a lifetime of therapy to get past those childhood experiences. So it seems I’ve spent more money on my height than it ever earned me. Anyone care to comment on their experience?