According to a study, there is a link between the height of a potential partner and the desire to have a short or long-term relationship.
- According to a study, a person’s height predicts their partner’s preferred height.
- Overall, study participants preferred taller-than-average male partners and shorter-than-average female partners.
- The researchers also noted a difference in partner size depending on the desire for a more or less long-term relationship.
We don’t know exactly what love comes from, but certain criteria come into play. Indeed, researchers have studied the role of the partner’s size on the duration of the relationship.
Torque: the size criterion responds to logic
536 people from Canada, Cuba, Norway and the United States participated in the study, published in Frontiers in Psychology. The average height of men was 178 cm and that of women 165 cm. The authors of the study showed them drawings of men and women where their height was indicated.
Participants were asked to indicate the ideal size of a partner for a short-term relationship as well as a long-term relationship. In accordance with the “taller man standard“, participants on average preferred male partners who were taller than average and female partners who were shorter than average, the researchers said.
Indeed, a person’s height predicts the size they prefer in their partner: taller individuals tend to prefer taller partners and vice versa – a mechanism called assortative mating, the researchers point out.
Men prefer women who are approximately their size for a long-term relationship
But that’s not all: Researchers have noticed a link between the height of a potential partner and the desire to have a short- or long-term relationship with that person.
Even more surprising, this phenomenon was only observed in men: “Taller men preferred relatively shorter women for short-term relationships than for long-term relationships.note the researchers.
The results of this study provide evidence that size is a factor and varies depending on the expected duration of the relationship, in addition to preferences for physical traits such as body, face and voice.
